lIBRARYCFfRIUCnCN 

NOV  2  T  2000 

THEOLOGICAL  SEk.lKnni 

OLD  WELLS  DUG  OUT: 


BEING  A  THIRD  SERIES  OF  SERMONS. 


BY 


T.  DE  WITT  TALMAGE, 

AUTHOR   OF 


SERMONS,"    "second  SERIES  OF  SERMONS,"  ETC 


PHONOGRAPHICALLY  REPORTED  AND  REVISED. 


NEW  YORK : 
FUNK    &    WAGNALLS 

lo  AND  12   Dey  Street. 
1886. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1886,  by 

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


PREFACE. 


This  book  takes  its  title  not  more  from  tlie  first  ser- 
mon than  from  the  fact  that  it  is  an  attempt  to  re-open 
the  old  fountains  of  the  Gospel,  which  have  of  late  years 
been  partially  filled  up.  For  that  reason  we  call  the 
book  "Old  Wells  Dug  Out." 

Some  of  these  discourses  were  preached  in  the  Brook- 
lyn Tabernacle,  and  others  in  the  Academy  of  Music, 
while  our  new  church  was  being  built. 

As  word  comes  to  us  from  all  directions  that  the  pre- 
vious volumes  have  been  the  means  of  comfort  and  sal- 
vation to  very  many  on  both  sides  the  Atlantic,  we  send 
this  book  out,  hoping  it  may  do  a  similar  work.  These 
sermons,  like  their  predecessors,  were  taken  down  by 
phonographerSj  and  are  left  as  they  were  uttered  in  ex- 
temporaneous delivery,  without  any  material  changes, 
because  I  have  not  had  time  to  reconstruct  them. 

They  are  part  of  my  life.  With  me  the  lecturing 
platform  and  the  literary  column  are  episodes;  but  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  is  my  chief 
employment  and  my  indescribable  delight.  The  Chris- 
tian printing-press  is  only  the  pulpit  on  cylinders.  May 
this  attempt  to  preach  through  the  printed  page  harvest 
many  sheaves  for  the  Lord's  garner ! 

T.  De  Witt  Talmagk 


CONTENTS 


PAGt 

OLD  WELLS  DUG  OUT.c.t 1-- 

CHRIST  EVERY  THING ^.  -  28 

THE   EING'S   wagons 3^ 

THE   UPPER  AND   NETHER   SPRINGS 5] 

THE   "VILLE   DU   HAATJE  "  62 

GRACE  IN   CRYSTALS  75 

GOSPEL  ARCHERY 85 

THE   BEST   WE   HAVE 97 

WASTED  AROMA 109 

THINGS   NOT  BURNED   UP 120 

WICKEDNESS  IN   HIGH  PLACES 133 

FOURTH   ANNIVERSARY 147 

MIGRATION   HEAVENWARD : 162    ^^ 

THE   LAYER   OF   LOOKING-GLASSES 174     {,■> 

CRUMBS   UNDER  THE  TABLE 187 

ORDERED   BACK  TO   THE   GUARD-ROOM 201 

FREE   CHURCHES   ADVOCATED 213 

OBJECTIONS   TO   FREE   CHURCHES   ANSWERED 227 

woman's   war  against   THE    BOTTLE 242 

THE   PROUD   RIDER   UNHORSED 257 

THE   CHRISTIAN   NEEDLE-WOMAN 269 

HORACE   GREELEY,   LIVING   AND   DEAD 280 

ARRIVAL   OF   AUTUMN 292 

BLEATING   SHEEP   AND   LOWING   OXEN 305 

DIFFICULT  ROWING 316 

THE   BURNING   OF  THE   BROOKLYN   TABERNACLE 329 


1-i  CONTENTS. 

PAGK 

THE   BRIGHTEST   OF  DAYS 340 

THE    WORLD    GOING 356 

WEAPONS   CAPTURED 3G5 

THE   PILE   OF   STONES   SPEAKING 376 

CHRIST   OUR   SONG 387 

THE    WELL   BY   THE    GATE 401 

CESSATION    OF   EXPERIMENT 415 


OLD  WELLS  DUG  OUT. 


OLD  WELLS  DUG  OUT. 

"And  Isaac  digged  again  the  wells  of  water,  which  they  had  digged  in 
the  days  of  Abraham  his  father;  for  the  Philistines  had  stopped  them 
after  the  death  of  Abraham  :  and  he  called  their  names  after  the  names 
by  which  his  father  had  called  them." — Genesis  xxvi.,  18. 

I]Sr  Oriental  lands  a  well  of  water  is  a  fortune.  If  a 
king  dug  one,  he  became  as  famous  as  though  he 
had  built  a  pyramid  or  conquered  a  province.  Great 
battles  were  fought  for  the  conquest  or  defense  of  wells 
of  water ;  castles  and  towers  were  erected  to  secure  per- 
manent possession  of  them.  The  traveler  to-day  finds 
the  well  of  Jacob  dug  one  hundred  feet  through  a  solid 
rock  of  limestone.  These  ancient  wells  of  water  were 
surrounded  by  walls  of  rock.  This  wall  of  rock  was 
covered  up  with  a  great  slab.  In  the  centre  of  the  slab 
there  was  a  hole  through  which  the  leathern  bottle  or 
earthen  jar  was  let  down.  This  opening  was  covered 
by  a  stone.  When  Jacob,  a  young  man  of  seventy  years, 
was  courting  Eachel,  he  won  her  favor,  the  Bible  says, 
by  removing  the  stone  from  the  opening  of  the  well. 
He  liked  her  because  she  was  industrious  enough  to 
come  down  and  water  the  camels.  She  liked  him  be- 
cause he  was  clever  enough  to  lay  hold  and  give  a  lift  to 

one  who  needed  it. 

1* 


16  OLD   WULL^  DUG   GUT. 

It  was  considered  one  of  the  greatest  calamities  that 
could  happen  a  nation  when  these  wells  of  water  were 
stopped.  Isaac,  you  see  in  the  text,  found  out  that  the 
wells  of  water,  that  had  been  dug  out  by  his  father  Abra- 
ham at  great  expense  and  care,  had  been  filled  up  by  the 
spiteful  Philistines.  Immediately  Isaac  orders  them  all 
opened  again.  I  see  the  spades  plunging,  and  the  earth 
tossing,  and  the  water  starting,  until  the  old  wells  are  en- 
tirely restored ;  and  the  cattle  come  down  to  the  trough 
and  thrust  their  nostrils  in  the  water,  their  bodies  quak- 
ing at  every  swallow,  until  they  lift  up  their  heads  and 
look  around  and  take  a  long  breath,  the  water  from  the 
sides  of  their  mouths  dripping  in  sparkles  down  into  the 
trough.  I  never  tasted  such  water  in  my  life  as  in  my 
boyhood  I  drank  out  of  the  moss-covered  bucket  that 
swung  up  on  the  chains  of  the  old  well-sweep ;  and  I 
think  when  Isaac  leaned  over  the  curb  of  these  restored 
wells,  he  felt  within  himself  that  it  was  a  beverage 
worthy  of  God's  brewing.  He  was  very  careful  to  call 
all  the  wells  by  the  same  names  which  his  father  had 
called  them  by;  and  if  this  well  was  called  "The  Well 
in  the  Valley,"  or  "The  Well  by  the  Kock,"  or  "The 
Well  of  Bubbles,"  Isaac  baptized  it  with  the  same  no- 
menclature. 

You  have  noticed,  my  Christian  friends,  that  many  of 
the  old  Gospel  wells  that  our  fathers  dug  have  been  fill- 
ed up  by  the  modern  Philistines.  They  have  thrown  in 
their  skepticisms  and  their  philosophies,  until  the  well  is 
almost  filled  up,  and  it  is  nigh  impossible  to  get  one 
drop  of  the  clear  water.  These  men  tell  us  that  you 
ought  to  put  the  Bible  on  the  same  shelf  with  the  Koran 
and  the  old  Persian  manuscripts,  and  to  read  it  with  the 


OLD   WELLS  DUG   OUT.  17 

same  spirit;  and  there  is  not  a  day  but  somebody  comes 
along  and  drops  a  brick  or  a  stone  or  a  carcass  in  this 
old  Gospel  well.  We  are  told  that  all  the  world  wants 
is  development,  forgetful  of  the  fact  that  without  the 
Gospel  the  world  always  develops  downward,  and  that 
if  you  should  take  the  religion  of  Christ  out  of  this 
world,  in  one  hundred  years  it  would  develop  into  the 
''Five  Points"  of  the  universe.  Yet  there  are  a  great 
many  men  and  there  are  a  great  many  rostrums  whose 
whole  work  it  is  to  fill  up  these  Christian  wells. 

You  will  not  think  it  strange,  then,  if  the  Isaac  who 
speaks  to  you  this  morning  tries  to  dig  open  some  of  the 
old  wells  made  by  Abraham,  his  father,  nor  will  you  be 
surprised  if  he  calls  them  by  the  same  old  names. 

Bring  your  shovel  and  pickaxe  and  crow-bar,  and  the 
first  well  we  will  open  is  the  glorious  well  of  the  Atone- 
ment It  is  nearly  filled  up  with  the  chips  and  debris  of 
old  philosophies  that  were  worn  out  in  the  time  of  Con- 
fucius and  Zeno,  but  which  smart  men  in  our  day  unwrap 
from  their  mummy-bandages,  and  try  to  make  us  believe 
are  original  with  themselves.  I  plunge  the  shovel  to  the 
very  bottom  of  the  well,  and  I  find  the  clear  water  start- 
ing. Glorious  well  of  the  Atonement!  Perhaps  there 
are  people  here  who  do  not  know  what  "atonement" 
means,  it  is  so  long  since  you  have  heard  the  definition. 
The  word  itself,  if  you  give  it  a  peculiar  pronunciation, 
will  show  you  the  meaning — at-one-ment.  Man  is  a  sin- 
ner, and  deserves  to  die.  Jesus  comes  in  and  bears  his 
punishments  and  weeps  his  griefs.  I  was  lost  once,  but 
now  I  am  found.  I  deserved  to  die,  but  Jesus  took  the 
lances  into  his  own  heart  until  his  face  grew  pale  and  his 
chin  dropped  on  his  chest,  and  he  had  strength  only  to 


18  OLD   WELLS  DUG  OUT. 

say,  "It  is  finished!"  The  boat  swung  round  into  the 
trough  of  the  sea,  and  would  have  been  swamped,  but 
Jesus  took  hold  of  the  oar.  I  was  set  in  the  battle,  and 
must  have  been  cut  to  pieces  had  not,  at  night-fall,  he 
who  rideth  on  the  white  horse  come  into  the  fray.  That 
which  must  have  been  the  Waterloo  of  my  defeat  now 
becomes  the  Waterloo  of  my  triumph,  because  Blucher 
has  come  up  to  save.  Expiation  !  expiation  !  The  law 
tried  me  for  high  treason  against  God,  and  found  me 
guilty.  The  angels  of  God  were  the  jurors  impaneled 
in  the  case,  and  they  found  me  guilty.  I  was  asked  what 
I  had  to  say  why  sentence  of  eternal  death  should  not 
be  pronounced  upon  me,  and  I  had  nothing  to  say.  I 
stood  on  the  scaffold  of  God's  justice ;  the  black  cap  of 
eternal  death  was  about  to  be  drawn  over  my  eyes,  when 
from  the  hill  of  Calvary  One  came.  He  dashed  through 
the  ranks  of  earth  and  heaven  and  hell.  He  rode  swift- 
ly. His  garments  were  dyed  with  blood,  his  face  was 
bleeding,  his  feet  were  dabbled  with  gore,  and  he  cried 
out,  "Save  that  man  from  going  down  to  the  pit.  I  am 
the  ransom."  And  he  threw  back  the  coat  from  his 
heart,  and  that  heart  burst  into  a  crimson  fountain,  and 
he  dropped  dead  at  my  feet ;  and  I  felt  of  his  hands,  and 
they  were  stiff;  and  I  felt  of  his  feet,  and  they  were  cold  ; 
and  I  felt  of  his  heart,  and  it  was  pulseless;  and  I  cried, 
"  Dead !"  And  angels  w^ith  excited  wings  flew  upward, 
amidst  the  the  thrones,  crying,  "Dead!"  and  spirits  lost 
in  black  brood  wheeled  down  amidst  the  caverns,  crying, 
"  Dead !"     Expiation  !  expiation  ! 

Cowper,  overborne  with  his  sin,  threw  himself  into  a 
chair  by  the  window,  picked  up  a  New  Testament,  and 
his  eye  lighted  upon  this,  "Whom  God  hath  set  forth  as 


OLD   WELLS  DUG   OUT.  IC 

a  propitiation  through  faith  in  bis  blood;"  and  instantly 
he  was  free!  Unless  Christ  pays  our  debt,  we  go  to 
eternal  jail.  Unless  our  Joseph  opens  the  king's  corn- 
crib,  we  die  of  famine.     One  sacrifice  for  all. 

A  heathen  got  worried  about  his  sins,  and  came  to  a 
priest  and  asked  how  he  might  be  cured.  The  priest 
said,  "If  you  will  drive  spikes  in  your  shoes  and  walk 
five  hundred  miles,  you  will  get  over  it."  So  he  drove 
spikes  in  his  shoes  and  began  the  pilgrimage,  trembling, 
tottering,  agonizing  on  the  way,  until  he  came  about 
twenty  miles,  and  sat  down  under  a  tree,  exhausted. 
Near  by  a  missionary  was  preaching  Christ,  the  Saviour 
of  all  men.  When  the  heathen  heard  it,  he  pulled  off 
his  sandals,  threw  them  as  far  as  he  could,  and  cried, 
"That's  what  I  want;  give  me  Jesus!  give  me  Jesus!" 
Oh,  ye  who  have  been  convicted  and  worn  of  sin,  trudg- 
ing on  all  your  days  to  reap  eternal  woe,  will  you  not, 
this  morning,  at  the  announcement  of  a  full  and  glorious 
atonement,  throw  your  torturing  transgressions  to  the 
winds?  "The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from  all 
sin ;"  that  was  the  very  passage  that  came  to  the  tent 
of  Iledley  Vicars,  the  brave  English  soldier,  and  changed 
him  into  a  hero  for  the  Lord. 

Around  this  great  well  of  the  Atonement  the  chief 
battles  of  Christianity  are  to  be  fought.  Ye  Bedouins 
of  infidelity,  take  the  other  wells,  but  do  not  touch  this. 
I  call  it  by  the  same  name  that  our  father  Abraham 
gave  it — the  Atonement  Here  is  where  he  stood,  his 
staff  against  the  well-curb.  Here  is  where  he  walked, 
the  track  of  his  feet  all  around  about  the  well.  This  is 
the  very  water  that  with  trembling  hand,  in  his  dying 
moment,  he  piU  to  his  lips.     Oh,  3^e  sun-struck,  desert- 


20  OLD   WELLS  DUG   OUT. 

worn  pilgrims,  drive  up  your  camels,  and  dismount !  A 
pitcher  of  water  for  each  one  of  you,  and  I  will  fill  the 
trough  for  the  camels.  See  the  bucket  tumble  and  dash 
into  the  depths ;  but  I  bring  it  up  again,  hand  over  hand, 
crying,  "Ho,  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  ye  to  the 
waters!" 

ISTow,  bring  your  shovels  and  your  pickaxes,  and  we 
will  try  to  open  another  well.  I  call  it  the  well  of  Chris- 
tian comfort.  You  have  noticed  that  there  are  a  good 
many  new  ways  of  comforting.  Your  father  dies.  Your 
neighbor  comes  in,  and  he  says,  "It  is  only  a  natural  law 
that  your  father  should  die.  The  machinery  is  merely 
worn  out ;"  and  before  he  leaves  you,  he  makes  some 
other  excellent  remarks  about  the  coagulation  of  blood, 
and  the  difference  between  respiratory  and  nitrogenized 
food.  Your  child  dies,  and  your  philosophic  neighbor 
comes,  and  for  your  soothing  tells  you  that  it  was  impos- 
sible the  child  should  live  with  such  a  state  of  mucous 
membrane!  Out!  with  your  chemistry  and  physiology 
when  I  have  trouble,  and  give  me  a  plain  New  Testa- 
ment! I  would  rather  have  an  illiterate  man  from  the 
backwoods  who  knows  Christ,  talk  with  me,  when  I  am 
in  trouble,  than  the  profoundest  worldling  who  does  not 
know  him.  The  Gospel,  without  telling  you  any  thing 
about  mucous  membrane  or  gastric  juice  or  hydrochloric 
ac "d,  comes  and  says,  "All  things  together  work  for  gG^d 
to  those  who  love  Grod,"  and  that  if  your  child  is  gone, 
it  is  only  because  Jesus  has  folded  it  in  his  arms, and  that 
the  Judgment-day  will  explain  things  that  are  now  inex- 
plicable. Oh  !  let  us  dig  out  this  Gospel  well  of  comfort. 
Take  away  the  stoicism  and  fatality  with  which  you  have 
been  trying  to  fill  it.     Drive  up  the  great  herd  of  your 


OLD   WELLS  DUG   OUT.  21 

cares  and  anxieties,  and  stop  their  bleating  in  this  cool 
fountain !  To  this  well  David  came  when  he  lost  Absa- 
lom ;  and  Paul,  when  his  back  was  red  and  raw  with  the 
scourge;  and  Dr.  Young,  when  his  daughter  died;  and 
Latimer,  when  the  flames  of  martyrdom  leaped  on  his 
track;  and  M'Kail,  when  he  heard  the  knife  sharpening 
for  his  beheading ;  and  all  God's  sheep  in  all  the  ages. 

After  one  of  Napoleon's  battles,  it  was  found  that  the 
fight  had  been  so  terrific  that,  when  the  muster-roll  was 
called  of  one  regiment,  there  were  only  three  privates  and 
one  drummer-boy  that  answered.  An  awful  fight  that! 
Oh !  that  Christ  to-day  might  come  so  mightily  for  the 
slaying  of  your  troubles  and  sorrows  that  when  you  go 
home  and  call  the  muster-roll  of  the  terrible  troop,  not 
one — not  one — shall  answer,  Christ  having  quelched  ev- 
ery annoyance,  and  salved  every  gash,  and  wiped  every 
tear,  and  made  complete  extermination. 

Now  bring  your  shovels  and  pickaxes,  and  we  will 
dig  out  another  well — a  well  opened  by  our  father  Abra- 
ham, but  which  the  Philistines  have  filled  up.  It  is  the 
ivell  of  Gospel  Inviiaiion.  I  suppose  j^ou  have  noticed 
that  religious  address  in  this  day,  for  the  most  part,  has 
gone  into  the  abstract  and  essayic.  You  know  the  word 
"sinner"  is  almost  dropped  out  of  the  Christian  vocabu- 
lary ;  it  is  not  thought  polite  to  use  that  word  now.  It 
is  methodistic  or  old-fashioned.  If  you  want  to  tell  men 
that  they  are  sinners,  you  must  say  they  are  spiritually 
erratic,  or  have  moral  deficits,  or  they  have  not  had  a 
proper  spiritual  development;  and  I  have  not  heard  in 
twenty  years  that  old  hymn, 

"  Come,  ye  sinners,  poor  and  needy." 


22  OLD   WELLS  DUG  OUT. 

In  the  first  place,  they  are  not  sinners,  and  in  the  sec- 
ond place,  they  are  neither  poor  ncr  needy !  I  have 
heard  Christian  men  in  prayer-meetings  and  elsewhere 
talk  as  though  there  were  no  very  great  radical  change 
before  a  man  becomes  a  Christian.  All  he  has  got  to 
do  is  to  stop  swearing,  clear  his  throat  a  few  times,  take 
a  good  wash,  and  he  is  ready  for  heaven !  My  friends, 
if  every  man  has  not  gone  astray,  and  if  the  whole  race 
is  not  plunged  in  sin  and  ruin,  then  that  Bible  is  the 
greatest  fraud  ever  enacted ;  for,  from  beginning  to  end, 
it  sets  forth  that  they  are.  Now,  my  brothers  and  sisters, 
if  a  man  must  be  born  again  in  order  to  see  the  kingdom 
of  God,  and  if  a  man  is  absolutely  ruined  unless  Christ 
check  his  course,  why  not  proclaim  it?  There  must  be 
an  infinite  and  radical  change  in  every  man's  heart,  or 
he  can  not  come  within  ten  thousand  miles  of  heaven. 
There  must  be  an  earthquake  in  his  soul,  shaking  down 
his  sins,  and  there  must  be  the  trumpet-blast  of  Christ's 
resurrection  bringing  him  up  from  the  depths  of  sin  and 
darkness  into  the  glorious  life  of  the  Gospel.  Do  you 
know  why  more  men  do  not  come  to  Christ?  It  is  be- 
cause men  are  not  invited  that  they  do  not  come.  You 
get  a  general  invitation  from  your  friend :  "  Come  round 
some  time  to  my  house  and  dine  with  me."  You  do  not 
go.  But  he  says,  "  Come  around  to-day  at  four  o'clock, 
and  bring  your  family,  and  we'll  dine  together."  And 
you  say,  "I  don't  know  as  I  have  any  engagement:  I 
will  come."  "  I  expect  you  at  four  o'clock."  And  you 
go.  The  world  feels  it  is  a  general  invitation  to  come 
around  some  time  and  sit  at  the  great  Gospel  feast,  and 
men  do  not  come  because  they  are  not  specially  invited. 
It  is  because  you  do  not  take  hold  of  them  and  say,  *'  My 


OLD   WELLS  DUG   OUZ  23 

brother,  come  to  Christ ;  come  now — come  now !"  How 
was  it  that  in  the  days  of  Daniel  Baker  and  Truman  Os- 
borne, and  Nettleton,  so  many  thousands  came  to  Jesus? 
Because  those  men  did  nothing  else  but  invite  them  to 
come.  They  spent  their  lifetime  uttering  invitations, 
and  they  did  not  mince  matters  either?  Where  did 
John  Bunyan's  pilgrim  start  from  ?  Did  he  start  from 
some  easy,  quiet,  cozy  place?  No;  if  you  have  read 
John  Bunyan's  "Pilgrim's  Progress,"  you  know  where 
he  started  from,  and  that  was  the  City  of  Destruction^ 
where  every  sinner  starts  from.  Do  you  know  what 
Livingstone,  the  Scotch  minister,  was  preaching  about  in 
Scotland  when  three  hundred  souls  under  one  sermon 
came  to  Christ?  He  was  preaching  about  the  human 
heart  as  unclean,  and  hard,  and  stony.  Do  you  know 
what  George  Whitefield  was  preaching  about  in  his  first 
sermon,  when  fifteen  souls  saw  the  salvation  of  God  ?  It 
was  this:  "Ye  must  be  born  again."  Do  3^ou  know 
what  is  the  last  subject  he  ever  preached  upon  ?  "  Flee 
the  wrath  to  come."  Oh !  that  the  Lord  God  would 
come  into  our  pulpits,  and  prayer-meetings,  and  Christian 
circles,  and  bring  us  from  our  fine  rhetoric  and  profound 
metaphysics,  and  our  elegant  hair-splitting,  to  the  old- 
fashioned  well  of  Gospel  Invitation.  There  are  enough 
sinners  in  this  house  this  morning,  if  they  should  come 
to  God,  to  make  joy  enough  in  heaven  to  keep  jubilee  a 
thousand  years.  Why  not  come  ?  Have  you  never  had 
a  special  invitation  to  come?  If  not,  I  give  it  now: 
you,  you,  you,  come  now  to  Jesus!  Why  do  you  try  to 
cover  up  that  cancer  with  a  piece  of  court-plaster,  when 
Christ,  the  surgeon,  with  his  scalpel,  would  take  it  all 
away,  and  it  would  ne-ver  come  again  ?     Do  you  know 


2-1  OLD   WELLS  DUO   OUT. 

that  your  nature  is  all  wrong  unless  it  has  been  changed 
by  the  grace  of  God  ?  Do  you  not  know  that  God  can 
not  be  pleased  with  you,  my  dear  brother,  in  your  pres- 
ent state  ?  Do  you  know  that  your  sinful  condition  ex- 
cites the  wrath  of  God?  "  God  is  angry  with  the  wick- 
ed every  day."  Do  you  not  know  that  you  have  made 
war  upon  God?  Do  you  not  know  that  you  have 
plunged  your  spear  into  the  Saviour's  side,  and  that  you 
have  punctured  his  temples,  and  spiked  his  feet,  and 
that  you  have  broken  his  heart? 

Oh!  is  this  what  he  deserves,  you  blood-bought  soul? 
Is  this  the  price  you  pay  him  for  his  long,  earthly  tramp, 
and  his  shelterless  nights,  and  his  dying  prayer,  and  the 
groan  that  made  creation  shiver?  Do  you  want  to  drive 
another  nail  into  him?  Do  you  want  to  stick  him  with 
another  thorn  ?  Do  you  want  to  join  the  mob  that  with 
bloody  hands  smote  him  on  the  cheek,  crying,  "  His  blood 
be  on  us  and  our  children  forever  I"  Oh,  your  sins! 
And  when  I  say  that,  I  do  not  pick  out  some  man  who 
may  not  have  been  in  a  house  of  worship  for  forty  years, 
but  I  pick  out  any  man  you  choose,  whose  heart  has  not- 
been  changed  by  the  grace  of  God.  Oh,  your  sins!  I 
press  them  on  your  attention — the  sins  of  your  lifetime. 
What  a  record  for  a  death-pillow !  What  data  for  the 
Judgment-day !  What  a  cup  of  gall  for  your  lips !  Look 
at  all  the  sins  of  your  childhood  and  riper  years,  with 
their  forked  tongues  and  adder  stings  and  deathless  poig- 
nancy, unless  Jesus  with  his  heel  shall  crush  the  ser- 
pents. You  have  sinned  against  your  God;  5^ou  have 
sinned  against  your  Jesus ;  you  have  sinned  against  your 
grave — ay,  you  have  sinned  against  the  little  resting- 
place  of  your  darling  child,  for  you  will  never  see  her 


OLD    WELLi^  DUG    OUT.  25 

again  unless  you  repent.  How  can  you  go  to  the  good 
place,  the  pure  place  where  she  is,  your  heart  unpardon- 
ed? You  have  sinned  against  a  Christian  father's  coun- 
sel and  a  dying  mother's  prayer. 

I  saw  an  account  the  other  day  of  a  little  boy  who  was 
to  be  taken  by  a  city  missionary,  with  some  other  boys, 
to  the  country  to  find  homes.  He  was  well  clad,  and 
had  a  new  hat  given  him  ;  but  while  the  missionary  was 
getting  the  other  children  ready  to  go,  this  boy  went  into 
a  corner  and  took  the  hat  he  had  thrown  off,  and  tore 
the  lining  out  of  it.  The  missionary  said,  "What  are 
you  doing  with  that  hat?  You  don't  want  it.  What 
are  you  tearing  the  lining  out  of  it  for?"  "Ahl"  said 
the  boy,  "  that  was  made  out  of  mother's  dress.  She 
loved  me  very  much  before  she  died,  and  I  have  noth- 
ing to  remember  her  b}^  but  the  lining."  And  so  the 
boy  tore  it  out  and  put  it  in  his  bosom.  Oh  !  would  you 
not  like  to  have  one  shred  of  your  mother's  religion  to 
remember  her  by  ?  Do  not  her  prayers  clamor  for  an 
answer  this  morning?  Do  you  not  see  her  hold  her 
withered  hands  stretched  out  from  the  death-bed,  beg- 
ging you  to  come  to  God  and  be  at  peace  with  him  ? 
Would  you  not  like  to  have  the  purity  of  your  mother? 
Would  you  not  like  to  have  the  comfort  she  felt  in  dark 
days  ?  Would  you  not  like  to  have  some  of  that  peace 
which  she  had  in  her  last  moments,  when  she  looked  up 
through  her  spectacles  at  you,  and  said  she  must  go  away, 
for  Jesus  called  her,  and  you  said,  "  Mother,  we  can't 
spare  you ;"  and  the  outcry  of  grief  was  answered  by  a 
long  breath  that  told  you  it  was  all  over  ?  Oh,  my  God  ! 
let  not  m.other  be  on  one  side  and  father  on  the  same 
side,  and  loved  ones  on  the  same  side  of  the  throne,  and 


26  OLD   WELLS  DUG   OUT. 

I  be  on  the  other  side.  If  we  are  this  morning  on  the 
wrong  side,  let  us  cross  over  —  let  us  cross  over  now. 
Blessed  Jesus,  we  come,  bruised  with  sin,  and  throw  our- 
selves in  the  arms  of  thy  compassion !  None  ever  want- 
ed thee  more  than  we.  Oh  !  turn  on  us  thy  benedic- 
tion !  Wliatever  else  we  lose  or  get,  we  must  win 
heaven.     "  Lord,  save  us — we  perish  !" 

Let  us  come  around  the  old  Gospel  well.  A  good 
many  of  you  came  in  these  doors  this  morning  carrying 
a  very  heavy  burden.  I  do  not  know  what  it  is — I  can 
not  guess  what  it  is ;  but  I  noticed  some  of  you,  when 
you  came  in  this  morning,  looked  sad.  It  may  be  a 
home  trouble  you  can  not  tell  any  body.  How  many 
have  burdens  on  your  shoulders  and  on  your  hearts! 
Come  to  the  well ;  put  down  the  pack  right  beside  the 
well.  Jacob's  well  was  one  hundred  feet  deep,  and  cut 
through  the  rock ;  but  this  Gospel  well  is  deep  as  eterni- 
ty, and  it  is  cut  right  down  through  the  heart  of  the  Son 
of  God.  Shovels  opened  that  other  well ;  spears  opened 
this.  You  remember  the  old  well-sweep  in  the  country 
was  made  out  of  two  pieces — one  planted  in  the  ground, 
and  on  it  was  swung  a  long  beam,  which  we  laid  hold  of 
in  our  boyhood  and  brought  downward,  and  the  bucket 
dipped  into  the  water  and  came  up  full.  So  the  cross  of 
Jesus  is  made  out  of  two  pieces.  I  take  one  piece  and 
plant  it  close  by  this  good  old  well,  and  then  swing  on 
it  the  long  piece,  and  I  lay  hold  of  it  with  my  prayer, 
and  I  pull  it  down  until  the  bucket  strikes  the  bottom 
of  the  Saviour's  groans  and  the  Saviour's  tears,  and  then 
I  fetch  it  up,  bubbling,  foaming,  brimming,  sparkling, 
with  the  water  of  which,  if  a  man  drink,  he  shall  never 
thirst. 


OLD   WELLS  DUG   OUT.  2-1 

*'  To  the  dear  fountain  of  thy  blood, 
Incarnate  God  I  I  fly  : 
Here  let  me  wash  my  spotted  soul 
From  crimes  of  deepest  dye, 

*' A  guilty,  weak,  and  helpless  worm, 
On  thy  kind  arras  I  fall ; 
Be  thou  my  strength  and  righteousnesSj 
My  Jesus  and  my  all." 


28  CEBIST  EVERY  THING, 


CHEIST  EVERY  THING. 

"Christ  is  all  and  in  all." — Colossians  iii.,  11. 

EYERY  age  of  the  world  has  had  its  historians,  its 
philosophers,  its  artists,  its  thinkers,  and  its  teach- 
ers. Were  there  histories  to  be  written,  there  has  al- 
ways been  a  Moses,  or  a  Herodotus,  or  a  Xenophon,  or 
a  Josephus  to  write  them.  Were  there  poems  to  be 
constructed,  there  has  always  been  a  Job  or  a  Homer  to 
construct  them.  Were  there  thrones,  lustrous  and  pow- 
erful, to  be  lifted,  there  has  always  been  a  David  or  a 
Caesar  to  raise  them.  Were  there  teachers  demanded 
for  the  intellect  and  the  hearts,  there  has  been  a  Soc- 
rates, and  a  Zeno,  and  a  Cleanthes,  and  a  Marcus  Anto- 
ninus coming  forth  on  the  grand  and  glorious  mission. 
Every  age  of  the  world  has  had  its  triumphs  of  reason 
and  morality.  There  has  not  been  a  single  age  of  the 
world  which  has  not  had  some  decided  system  of  re- 
ligion. The  Platonism,  Orientalism,  Stoicism,  Brahman- 
ism,  and  Buddhism,  considering  the  ages  in  which  they 
were  established,  were  not  lacking  in  ingenuity  and 
force.  Now,  in  this  line  of  beneficent  institutions  and 
of  noble  men,  there  appeared  a  personage  more  wonder- 
ful than  any  predecessor.  He  came  from  a  family  with- 
out any  royal  or  aristocratic  pretension.  He  became  a 
Galilean  mechanic.  He  had  no  advantage  from  the 
schools.  There  were  people  beside  him  day  after  day 
who  had  no  idea  that  he  was  going  to  be  any  thing  re- 


CHRIST  EVERY  THING.  29 

markable  or  do  any  thing  remarkable.  Yet,  notwith- 
standing all  this,  and  without  any  title,  or  scholarly 
profession,  or  flaming  rhetoric,  he  startled  the  world  with 
the  strangest  announcements,  ran  in  collision  with  sol- 
emn priest  and  proud  ruler,  and  with  a  voice  that  rang 
through  temple,  and  palace,  and  over  ship's  deck,  and 
mountain  top,  exclaimed,  "I  am  the  light  of  the  world!" 
Men  were  taken  all  aback  at  the  idea  that  that  hand,  yet 
hard  from  the  use  of  the  axe,  and  saw,  and  adze,  and 
hatchet,  should  wave  the  sceptre  of  authority,  and  that 
upon  that  brow,  from  which  they  had  so  often  seen  him 
wipe  the  sweat  of  toil,  there  would  yet  come  the  crown 
of  unparalleled  splendor  and  of  universal  dominion.  We 
all  know  how  difficult  it  is  to  think  that  any  body  who 
was  at  school  with  us  in  boyhood  has  got  to  be  any 
thing  great  or  famous;  and  no  wonder  that  those  who 
had  been  boys  with  Christ  in  the  streets  of  Nazareth, 
and  seen  him  in  after-years  in  the  days  of  his  complete 
obscurity,  should  have  been  very  slow  to  acknowledge 
Christ's  wonderful  mission. 

From  this  humble  point  the  stream  of  life  flowed  out. 
At  first  it  was  just  a  faint  rill,  hardly  able  to  find  its 
way  down  the  rock ;  but  the  tears  of  a  weeping  Christ 
added  to  its  volume;  and  it  flowed  on  until,  by  the 
beauty  and  greenness  of  the  banks,  you  might  know  the 
path  the  crystal  stream  was  taking.  On  and  on,  until 
the  lepers  were  brought  down  and  washed  oflP  their  lep- 
rosy, and  the  dead  were  lifted  into  the  water  that  they 
might  have  life,  and  pearls  of  joy  and  promise  were 
gathered  from  the  brink,  and  innumerable  churches  gath- 
ered on  either  bank,  and  the  tide -flows  on  deeper,  and 
stronger,  and  wider,  until  it  rolls   into  the  river  from 


30  CHRIST  EVERY  THINO. 

under  the  throne  of  God,  mingling  billow  with  billow, 
and  brightness  with  brightness,  and  joy  with  joy,  and 
hosanna  with  hosanna ! 

I  was  looking  a  few  days  ago  at  some  of  the  paintings 
of  the  late  artist,  Mr.  Kensett.  I  saw  some  pictures  that 
were  just  faint  outlines;  in  some  places  you  would  see 
only  the  branches  of  a  tree  and  no  trunk ;  and  in  an- 
other case  the  trunk  and  no  branches.  He  had  not 
finished  the  work.  It  would  have  taken  him  days 
and  months,  perhaps,  to  have  completed  it.  Well,  my 
friends,  in  this  world  we  get  only  the  faintest  outline  of 
what  Christ  is.  It  will  take  all  eternity  to  fill  up  the 
picture — so  loving,  so  kind,  so  merciful,  so  great!  Paul 
does  not,  in  this  chapter,  say  of  Christ  he  is  good,  or  he 
is  loving,  or  he  is  patient,  or  he  is  kind;  but  in  his  ex- 
clamation of  the  text  he  embraces  every  thing  when  he 
says,  "  Christ  is  all  and  in  all." 

I  remark,  in  the  first  place,  Christ  is  every  thing  in  the 
Bible.  I  do  not  care  where  I  open  the  Bible,  I  find 
Jesus.  In  whatever  path  I  start,  I  come,  after  a  while, 
to  the  Bethlehem  manger.  I  go  back  to  the  old  dispensa- 
tion, and  see  a  lamb  on  the  altar,  and  say,  "Behold  the 
Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world !" 
Then  I  go  and  see  the  manna  provided  for  the  Israelites 
in  the  wilderness,  and  I  say,  "Jesus,  the  bread  of  life." 
Then  I  look  at  the  rock  which  was  smitten  by  the 
prophet's  rod,  and,  as  the  water  gushes  out,  I  say,  "  It 
is  Jesus,  the  fountain  opened  for  sin  and  for  unclean- 
ness,"  I  go  back  and  look  at  the  writings  of  Job,  and 
hear  him  exclaim,  "  I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth." 
Then  I  go  to  Ezekiel,  and  I  find  Christ  presented  there 
as  "a  plant  of  renown;"  and  then  I  turn  over  to  Isaiah, 


CHRIST  EVERY  THING.  31 

and  Christ  is  spoken  of  "  as  a  sheep  before  her  shearers." 
It  is  Jesus  all  the  way  between  Genesis  and  Malachi, 
Then  I  turn  over  to  the  ISTew  Testament,  and  it  is  Christ 
in  the  parable,  it  is  Christ  in  the  miracle,  it  is  Christ  in 
the  evangelists'  story,  it  is  Christ  in  the  apostles'  epistles, 
and  it  is  Christ  in  the  trumpet  peal  of  the  Apocalypse. 
I  know  there  are  a  great  many  people  who  do  not  find 
Christ  in  the  Bible.  Here  is  a  man  who  studies  the 
Bible  as  a  historian.  Well,  if  you  come  as  a  historian, 
you  will  find  in  this  book  how  the  world  was  made, 
how  the  seas  fled  to  their  places,  how  empires  were  es- 
tablished, how  nation  fought  with  nation,  javelin  ringing 
against  harbegeon,  until  the  earth  was  ghastly  with  the 
dead.  You  will  see  the  coronation  of  princes,  the  tri- 
umph of  conquerors,  and  the  world  turned  upside  down 
and  back  again  and  down  again,  cleft  and  scarred  with 
great  agonies  of  earthquake,  and  tempest,  and  battle. 
It  is  a  wonderful  history,  putting  to  the  blush  all  oth- 
ers in  the  accuracy  of  its  recital,  and  in  the  stupendous 
events  it  records.  Homer,  and  Thucj^dides,  and  Gibbon 
could  make  great  stories  out  of  little  events;  but  it  took 
a  Moses  to  tell  how  the  heavens  and  the  earth  were 
made  in  one  chapter,  and  to  give  the  history  of  thou- 
sands of  years  upon  two  leaves. 

There  are  others  w^ho  come  to  the  Bible  merely  as  an- 
tiquarians. If  you  come  as  an  antiquarian  you  will  find 
a  great  many  odd  things  in  the  Bible:  peculiarities  of 
manner  and  custom,  marriage  and  burial ;  peculiarities 
of  dress,  tunics,  sandals,  crisping-pins,  amulets  and  gir- 
dles, and  tinkling  ornaments.  If  you  come  to  look  at 
military  arrangements,  you  will  find  coats  of  mail,  and 
javelins,  and  engines  of  war,  and  circumvallation,  and 

2 


32  CHRIST  EVERY  THING. 

encampments.  If  you  look  for  peculiar  musical  instru- 
ments, you  will  find  psalteries,  and  shigionoths,  and 
ram's  horns.  The  antiquarian  will  find  in  the  Bible 
curiosities  in  agriculture,  and  in  commerce,  and  in  art, 
and  in  religion,  that  will  keep  him  absorbed  a  great 
while.  There  are  those  who  come  to  this  Bible  as  you 
would  to  a  cabinet  of  curiosities,  and  jo\x  pick  up  this 
and  say,  "What  a  strange  sword  that  isi"  and  "What  a 
peculiar  hat  this  is !"  and  "  What  an  unlooked-for  lamp 
that  is!"  and  the  Bible  to  such  becomes  a  British  Mu- 
seum. 

Then  there  are  others  who  find  nothing  in  the  Bible 
but  the  'poetry.  Well,  if  you  come  as  a  poet,  you  will 
find  in  this  book  faultless  rhythm,  and  bold  imagery, 
and  startling  antithesis,  and  rapturous  lyric,  and  sweet 
pastoral,  and  instructive  narrative,  and  devotional  psalm  : 
thoughts  expressed  in  a  style  more  solemn  than  that  of 
Montgomery,  more  bold  than  that  of  Milton,  more  ter- 
rible than  that  of  Dante,  more  natural  than  that  of  Words- 
worth, more  impassioned  than  that  of  Pollock,  more  ten- 
der than  that  of  Cowper,  more  weird  than  that  of  Spen- 
ser. This  great  poem  brings  all  the  gems  of  the  earth 
into  its  coronet,  and  it  weaves  the  flames  of  judgment  in 
its  garland,  and  pours  eternal  harmonies  in  its  rhythm. 
Every  thing  this  book  touches  it  makes  beautiful,  from 
the  plain  stones  of  the  summer  threshing-floor,  and  the 
daughters  of  Nahor  filling  the  trough  for  the  camels, 
and  the  fish-pools  of  Heshbon,  up  to  the  Psalmist  prais- 
ing God  with  diapason  of  storm  and  whirlwind,  and  Job 
leading  forth  Orion,  Arcturus,  and  the  Pleiades.  It  is 
a  wonderful  poem ;  and  a  great  many  people  read  it  as 
they  do  Thomas  Moore's  "  Lalla  Eookh,"  and  Walter 


CUEIST  EVERY  THING.  33 

Scott's  "Lady  of  the  Lake,"  and  Southey's  "Curse  of 
Gehenna."  They  sit  down,  and  are  so  absorbed  in  look- 
ing at  the  shells  on  the  shore  that  they  forget  to  look  off 
on  the  great  ocean  of  God's  mercy  and  salvation. 

Then  there  are  others  who  come  to  this  book  as  shep- 
tics.  They  marshal  passage  against  passage,  and  try  to 
get  Matthew  and  Luke  in  a  quarrel,  and  would  have  a 
discrepancy  between  what  Paul  and  James  say  about 
faith  and  works;  and  they  try  the  account  of  Moses 
concerning  the  Creation  by  modern  decisions  in  science, 
and  resolve  that  in  all  questions  between  the  scientific 
explorer  and  the  inspired  writer  they  will  give  the  pref- 
erence to  the  geologist.  These  men — these  spiders,  I  will 
say — suck  poison  out  of  the  sweetest  flowers.  They  fat- 
ten their  infidelity  upon  the  truths  which  have  led  thou- 
sands to  heaven,  and  in  their  distorted  vision  prophet 
seems  to  war  with  prophet,  and  evangelist  with  evangel- 
ist, and  apostle  with  apostle ;  and  if  they  can  find  some 
bad  trait  of  character  in  a  man  of  God  mentioned  in  that 
Bible,  these  carrion  crows  caw  and  flap  their  wings  over 
the  carcass.  Because  they  can  not  understand  how  the 
whale  swallowed  Jonah,  they  attempt  the  more  wonder- 
ful feat  of  swallowing  the  monster  whale  of  modern  skep- 
ticism. They  do  not  believe  it  possible  that  the  Bible'*^ 
story  should  be  true  which  says  that  the  dumb  ass  spake,  |. 
while  they  themselves  prove  the  thing  possible  by  their^j 
own  utterances.  I  am  amused  beyond  bounds  when  I 
hear  one  of  these  men  talking  about  a  fjiiture  life.  Just 
ask  a  man  who  rejects  that  Bible  what  heaven  is,  and 
hear  him  befog  your  soul.  He  will  tell  you  that  heaven 
is  merely  the  development  of  the  internal  resources  of  a 
man ;  it  is  an  efQorescence  of  the  dynamic  forces  into  a 


34  CHRIST  EVEliY  THING. 

state  of  ethereal  and  transcendental  lucubration,  in  close 
juxtaposition  to  the  ever-present  "was,"  and  the  great 
"  to  be,"  and  the  everlasting  "  No."  Considering  them- 
selves wise,  thej  are  fools  for  time,  fools  for  eternity. 

Then  there  is  another  class  of  persons  who  come  to 
the  Bible  as  controversialists.  They  are  enormous  Pres- 
byterians, or  fierce  Baptists,  or  violent  Methodists.  They 
cut  the  Bible  to  suit  their  creed,  instead  of  cutting  their 
creed  to  suit  the  Bible.  If  the  Scriptures  think  as  they 
do,  well;  if  not,  so  much  the  worse  for  the  Scriptures. 
The  Bible  is  merely  the  whetstone  on  which  they  sharp- 
en the  dissecting-knife  of  controversy.  They  come  to  it 
as  a  Government  in  time  of  war  comes  to  armories  or  ar- 
senals for  weapons  and  munitions.  They  have  declared 
everlasting  war  against  all  other  sects,  and  they  want  so 
many  broadswords,  so  many  muskets,  so  many  howitzers, 
so  many  columbiads,  so  much  grape  and  canister,  so  many 
field-pieces  with  which  to  rake  the  field  of  dispute;  for 
they  mean  to  get  the  victory,  though  the  heavens  be 
darkened  with  the  smoke  and  the  earth  rent  with  the 
thunder.  What  do  they  care  about  the  religion  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ?  I  have  seen  some  such  men  come 
back  from  an  ecclesiastical  massacre  as  proud  of  their 
achievements  as  an  Indian  warrior  boasting  of  the  num- 
ber of  scalps  he  has  taken.  I  have  more  admiration  for 
a  man  who  goes  forth  with  his  fists  to  get  the-  cham- 
pionship— for  a  Heenan  or  a  Morrissey  —  than  I  have 
for  these  theological  pugilists  who  make  our  theological 
magazines  ring  with  their  horrible  war-cry.  There  are 
men  who  seem  to  think  the  only  use  of  the  sword  of 
truth  is  to  stick  somebody.  There  is  one  passage  of 
the  Scriptures  that  they  like  better  than  all  others,  and 


CHRIST  EVERT  THING.  85 

that  is  this :  "  Blessed  be  the  Lord  which  teacheth  my 
hands  to  war,  and  my  fingers  to  fight."  Woe  to  us  if 
we  come  to  God's  word  as  controversialists,  or  as  skep- 
tics, or  as  connoisseurs^  or  as  fault-finders,  or  merely  as 
poets ! 

Those  only  get  into  the  heart  of  God's  truth  who  come 
seeking  for  Christ.  Welcome  all  such !  They  will  find 
him  coming  out  from  behind  the  curtain  of  prophecy, 
until  he  stands,  in  the  full  light  of  New  Testament  dis- 
closure, Jesus  the  Son  of  God,  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 
They  will  find  him  in  genealogical  table  and  in  chron- 
ological calculation,  in  poetic  stanza  and  in  historical 
narrative,  in  profound  parable  and  in  startling  miracle. 
They  will  see  his  foot  on  every  sea,  and  his  tears  in  the 
drops  of  dew  on  Hermon,  and  hear  his  voice  in  the  wind, 
and  behold  his  words  all  abloom  in  the  valley  between 
Mount  Olivet  and  Jerusalem.  There  are  some  men  who 
come  and  walk  around  the  Temple  of  Truth,  and  merely 
see  the  outside.  There  are  others  who  walk  into  the 
porch,  and  then  go  away.  There  are  others  who  come 
in  and  look  at  the  pictures,  but  they  know  nothing  about 
the  chief  attractions  of  the  Bible.  It  is  only  the  man  who 
comes  and  knocks  at  the  gate,  saying,  "I  would  see  Je- 
sus." For  him  the  glories  of  that  book  open,  and  he 
goes  in  and  finds  Christ,  and  with  him  peace,  pardon, 
life,  comfort,  nnd  heaven.  "All  in  all  is  Jesus"  in  the 
Bible. 

I  remark  again  that  Christ  is  every  thing  in  the  great 
plan  of  redemption.  We  are  slaves;  Christ  gives  deliver- 
ance to  the  captive.  We  are  thirsty  ;  Christ  is  the  river 
or  salvation  to  slake  our  thirst.  We  are  hungry;  Jesus 
says,  ''  i  am  the  bread  of  life."     We  are  condemned  to 


36  CHRIST  EVERY  THING. 

die;  Christ  says,  "Save  that  man  from  going  down  to 
the  pit;  I  am  the  ransom."  We  are  tossed  on  a  sea  of 
troubles;  Jesus  comes  over  it,  saying,  "It  is  I,  be  not 
afraid."  We  are  in  darkness;  Jesus  says,  "I  am  the 
bright  and  the  morning-star."  We  are  sick;  Jesus  is 
the  balm  of  Gilead.  We  are  dead ;  hear  the  shrouds 
rend  and  the  grave  hillocks  heave  as  he  cries,  "  I  am  the 
resurrection  and  the  life;  he  that  believeth  in  me,  though 
he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live."  We  want  justification  ; 
"Being  justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace  with  God  through 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ^  We  want  to  exercise  faith ;  "  Be- 
lieve in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved." 
I  want  to  get  from  under  condemnation ;  "  There  is  now, 
therefore,  no  condemnation  to  them  who  are  in  Christ 
Jesus."  The  cross — he  carried  it.  The  flames  of  hell — 
he  suffered  them.  The  shame — he  endured  it.  The 
crown — he  won  it.  Heights  of  heaven  sing  it,  and  worlds 
of  light  to  worlds  of  light  all  round  the  heavens  cry, 
"Glory,  glory!" 

Let  us  go  forth  and  gather  the  trophies  for  Jesus. 
From  Golconda  mines  we  gather  the  diamonds,  from 
Ceylon  banks  we  gather  the  pearls,  from  all  lands  and 
kingdoms  we  gather  precious  stones,  and  we  bring  the 
glittering  burdens  and  put  them  down  at  the  feet  of  Je- 
sus,'*and  say,  "All  these  are  thine.  Thou  art  worthy." 
We  go  forth  again  for  more  trophies,  and  into  one  sheaf 
we  gather  all  the  sceptres  of  the  Caesars,  and  the  Alexan- 
ders, and  the  Czars,  and  the  Sultans,  of  all  royalties  and 
dominions,  and  then  we  bring  the  sheaf  of  sceptres  and 
put  it  down  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  and  say,  "  Thou  art  King 
of  kings,  and  these  thou  hast  conquered."  And  then  we 
go  forth  again  to  gather  more  trophies,  and  we  bid  the 


CHRIST  EVERY  THING.  37 

redeemed  of  all  ages,  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Lord 
Almighty,  to  come.  We  ask  them  to  come  and  offer 
their  thanksgivings,  and  the  hosts  of  heaven  bring  crown, 
and  palm,  and  sceptre,  and  here  by  these  bleeding  feet 
and  by  this  riven  side,  and  by  this  wounded  heart,  cry, 
"Blessing,  and  honor,  and  glory,  and  power  be  unto  him 
that  sitteth  upon  the  throne  and  unto  the  Lamb  forever 
and  forever!"  Tell  me  of  a  tear  that  he  did  not  weep, 
of  a  burden  that  he  did  not  carry,  of  a  battle  that  he  did 
not  fight,  of  a  victory  that  he  did  not  achieve.  "All  in 
all  is  Jesus  "  in  the  great  plan  of  redemption. 

I  remark  again,  Christ  is  every  thing  to  the  Christian 
in  time  of  trouble.  Who  has  escaped  trouble?  We  must 
all  stoop  down  and  drink  out  of  the  bitter  lake.  The 
moss  has  no  time  to  grow  on  the  buckets  that  come  up 
out  of  the  heart's  well,  dripping  with  tears.  Great  trials 
are  upon  our  track  as  certain  as  greyhound  pack  on  the 
scent  of  deer.  From  our  hearts  in  every  direction  there 
are  a  thousand  chords  reachinar  out  bindinsr  us  to  loved 
ones,  and  ever  and  anon  some  of  these  tendrils  snap. 
The  winds  that  cross  this  sea  of  life  are  not  all  abaft. 
The  clouds  that  cross  our  sky  are  not  feathery  and  afar, 
straying  like  flocks  of  sheep  on  heavenly  pastures;  but 
wrathful  and  sombre,  and  gleaming  with  terror,  they  wrap 
the  mountains  in  fire,  and  come  down  baying  with  their 
thunders  through  every  gorge.  The  richest  fruits  of 
blessing  have  a  prickly  shell.  Life  here  is  not  lying  at 
anchor;  it  is  weathering  a  gale.  It  is  not  sleeping  in 
a  soldier's  tent  with  our  arms  stacked ;  it  is  a  bayonet- 
charge.  We  stumble  over  grave-stones,  and  we  drive 
on  with  our  wheel  deep  in  the  old  rut  of  graves.  Trouble 
has  wrinkled  your  brow,  and  it  has  frosted  your  head. 


38  CHRIST  EVERY  THING. 

Falling  in  this  battle  of  life,  is  there  no  angel  of  mercy 
to  bind  our  wounds?  Hath  God  made  this  world  with 
so  many  things  to  hurt  and  none  to  heal?  For  this 
snake-bite  of  sorrow,  is  there  no  herb  growing  by  all  the 
brooks  to  heal  the  poison  ?  Blessed  be  God  that  in  the 
Gospel  we  find  the  antidote  !  Christ  has  bottled  an 
ocean  of  tears.  How  many  thorns  he  hath  plucked  out 
of  human  agony  I  Oh  I  he  knows  too  well  what  it  is 
to  carry  a  cross,  not  to  help  us  carry  ours.  He  knows 
too  well  what  it  is  to  climb  the  mountain,  not  to  help  us 
up  the  steep.  He  knows  too  well  what  it  is  to  be  per- 
secuted, not  to  help  those  who  are  imposed  upon.  He 
knows  too  well  what  it  is  to  be  sick,  not  to  help  those 
who  suffer.  Ay,  he  knows  too  well  what  it  is  to  die,  not 
to  help  us  in  our  last  extremity.  Blessed  Jesus,  thou 
knowest  it  all.  Seeing  thy  wounded  side,  and  thy  wound- 
ed hand,  and  thy  wounded  feet,  and  thy  wounded  brow, 
we  are  sure  thou  knowest  it  all.  Oh!  when  those  into 
whose  bosom  we  used  to  breathe  our  sorrows  are 
snatched  from  us,  blessed  be  God  the  heart  of  Jesus  still 
beats;  and  when  all  other  lights  go  out  and  the  world 
gets  dark,  then  we  see  coming  out  from  behind  a  cloud 
something  so  bright  and  cheering,  we  know  it  to  be  the 
morninsf-star  of  the  soul's  deliverance.  The  hand  of  care 
may  make  you  stagger,  or  the  hand  of  persecution  may 
beat  you  down,  or  the  hand  of  disappointment  may  beat 
you  back ;  but  there  is  a  Hand,  and  it  is  so  kind,  and  it 
is  so  gentle,  that  it  wipeth  all  tears  from  all  faces. 


THE  KLS'G'S  WAGONS.  39 


THE  KING'S  WAGONS. 

"And  when  he  saw  the  wagons  which  Joseph  had  sent  to  carry  him, 
the  spirit  of  Jacob,  their  father,  revived." — Genesis  xlv.,  27. 

THE  Egyptian  capital  was  the  focus  of  the  world's 
wealth.  In  ships  and  barges,  there  had  been 
brought  to  it  from  India  frankincense,  and  cinnamon, 
and  ivory,  and  diamonds;  from  the  North,  marble  and 
iron  ;  from  Syria,  purple  and  silk ;  from  Greece,  some  of 
the  finest  horses  of  the  world,  and  some  of  the  most 
brilliant  chariots;  and  from  all  the^  earth  that  which 
could  best  please  the  eye,  and  charm  the  ear,  and  grati- 
fy the  taste.  There  were  temples  aflame  with  red  sand- 
stone, entered  by  gate-ways  that  were  guarded  by  pillars 
bewildering  with  hieroglyphics,  and  wound  with  brazen 
serpents,  and  adorned  with  winged  creatures — their  eyes, 
and  beaks,  and  pinions  glittering  with  precious  stones. 
There  were  marble  columns  blooming  into  white  flower- 
buds  ;  there  were  stone  pillars,  at  the  top  bursting  into 
the  shape  of  the  lotus  when  in  full  bloom.  Along  the 
avenues,  lined  with  sphinx,  and  fane,  and  obelisk,  there 
were  princes  who  came  in  gorgeously-upholstered  palan- 
quin, carried  by  servants  in  scarlet,  or  elsewhere  drawn 
by  vehicles,  the  snow-white  horses,  golden-bitted,  and  six 
abreast,  dashing  at  full  run.  There  were  fountains  from 
stone-wreathed  vases  climbing  the  ladders  of  the  light. 
You  would  hear  a  bolt  shove,  and  a  door  of  brass  would 
open  like  a  flash  of  the  sun.     The  surrounding  gardens 

2* 


40  THE  KING'S  WAGONS. 

were  saturated  with  odors  that  mounted  the  terrace,  and 
dripped  from  the  arbors,  and  burned  their  incense  in  the 
Egyptian  noon.  On  floors  of  mosaic  the  glories  of  Pha- 
raoh were  spelled  out  in  letters  of  porphjny,  and  beryl, 
and  flame.  There  were  ornaments  twisted  from  the 
wood  of  the  tamarisk,  embossed  with  silver  breaking 
into  foam.  There  were  footstools  made  out  of  a  single 
precious  stone.  There  were  beds  fashioned  out  of  a 
crouched  lion  in  bronze.  There  were  chairs  spotted 
with  the  sleek  hide  of  leopards.  There  were  sofas  foot- 
ed with  the  claws  of  wild  beasts,  and  armed  with  the 
beaks  of  birds.  As  you  stand  on  the  level  beach  of  the 
sea  on  a  summer-day,  and  look  either  way,  and  there 
are  miles  of  breakers,  white  with  the  ocean  foam,  dash- 
ing shoreward ;  so  it  seemed  as  if  the  sea  of  the  world's 
pomp  and  wealth  in  the  Egj^ptian  capital  for  miles  and 
miles  flung  itself  up  into  white  breakers  of  marble  tem- 
ple, mausoleum,  and  obelisk. 

This  was  the  place  where  Joseph,  the  shepherd-boy, 
was  called  to  stand  next  to  Pharaoh  in  honor.  What  a 
contrast  between  this  scene  and  his  humble  starting,  and 
the  pit  into  which  his  brothers  threw  him  !  Yet  he  was 
not  forgetful  of  his  early  home ;  he  was  not  ashamed  of 
where  he  came  from.  The  Bishop  of  Mentz,  descended 
from  a  wheelwright,  covered  his  house  with  spokes,  and 
hammers,  and  wheels;  and  the  King  of  Sicily,  in  honor 
of  his  father,  who  was  a  potter,  refused  to  drink  out  of 
any  thing  but  an  earthen  vessel.  So  Joseph  was  not 
ashamed  of  his  early  surroundings,  or  of  his  old-time  fix- 
ther,  or  of  his  brothers.  When  they  came  up  from  the 
famine-stricken  land  to  get  corn  from  the  king's  corn- 
crib,  Joseph,  instead  of  chiding  them  for  the  way  they 


THE  KING'S  WAGONS.  41 

had  maltreated  and  abused  him,  sent  them  back  with 
wagons,  which  Pharaoh  furnished,  laden  with  corn ;  and 
old  Jacob,  the  father,  in  the  very  same  w^agons,  was 
brought  back,  that  Joseph,  the  son,  might  see  him,  and 
give  him  a  comfortable  home  all  the  rest  of  his  days. 

Well,  I  hear  the  wagons,  the  king's  wagons,  rumbling 
down  in  front  of  the  palace.  On  the  outside  of  the  pal- 
ace, to  see  the  wagons  go  off,  stands  Pharaoh  in  royal 
robes;  and  beside  him  prime-minister  Joseph,  with  a 
chain  of  gold  around  his  neck,  and  on  his  hand  a  ring 
given  by  Pharaoh  to  him,  so  that  any  time  he  wanted  to 
stamp  the  royal  seal  upon  a  document  he  could  do  so. 
Wagon  after  wagon  rolls  on  down  from  the  palace,  laden 
wath  corn,  and  meat,  and  changes  of  raiment,  and  every 
thing  that  could  help  a  famine-struck  people.  One  day 
I  see  aged  Jacob  seated  in  the  front  of  his  house.  HeTs 
possibl}^  thinking~ofTi1s"  a1teen1rboyTS-(sons,  however  old 
they  get,  are  never  to  a  father  any  more  than  boys) ;  and 
w^hile  he  is  seated  there,  he  sees  dust  arising,  and  he 
hears  wagons  rumbling,  and  he  wonders  what  is  coming 
now,  for  the  whole  land  had  been  smitten  with  the  fam- 
ine, and  was  in  silence.  But  after  a  while  the  wagons 
have  come  near  enough,  and  he  sees  his  sons  on  the  wag- 
ons, and  before  they  come  quite  up,  they  shout,  "Joseph 
is  yet  alive!"  The  old  man  faints  dead  away.  I  do  not 
wonder  at  it.  The  boys  tell  the  story  how  that  the  boy, 
the  long-absent  Joseph,  has  got  to  be  the  first  man  in  the 
Egj^ptian  palace.  While  they  unload  the  wagons,  the 
wan  and  wasted  creatures  in  the  neighborliood  come  up 
and  ask  for  a  handful  of  corn,  and  thev  arq  satisfied. 

One  day  the  wagons  are  brought"^up4-.fpr  Jacob,  the 
old  father,  is  about  to  go  to  see  Joseph  in  the  Egyptian 


42  THE  KINO'S  WAGONS. 

palace.  You  know  it  is  not  a  very  easy  thing  to 
transplant  an  old  tree,  and  Jacob  has  hard  work  to  get 
away  from  the  place  where  he  has  lived  so  long.  He 
bids  good-bye  to  the  old  place,  and  leaves  his  blessing 
with  the  neighbors,  and  then  his  sons  steady  him,  while 
he,  determined  to  help  himself,  gets  into  the  wagon,  stiff, 
old,  and  decrepit.  Yonder  they  go,  Jacob  and  his  sons, 
and  their  wives,  and  their  children,  eighty-two  in  all,  fol- 
lowed by  herds  and  flocks,  which  the  herdsmen  drive 
along.  They  are  going  out  from  famine  to  luxuriance; 
they  are  going  from  a  plain  country  home  to  the  finest 
palace  under  the  sun.  Joseph,  the  prime  minister,  gets 
in  his  chariot,  and  drives  down  to  meet  the  old  man. 
Joseph's  charioteer  holds  up  the  horses  on  the  one  side 
— the  dust-covered  wagons  of  the  emigrants  stop  on  the 
other.  Joseph,  instead  of  waiting  for  his  father  to  come, 
leaps  out  of  the  chariot  and  jumps  into  the  emigrants' 
wagon,  throws  his  arms  around  the  old  man,  and  weeps 
aloud  for  past  memories  and  present  joy.  The  father, 
Jacob,  can  hardly  think  it  is  his  boy.  Why,  the  smooth 
brow  of  childhood  has  become  a  wrinkled  brow,  wrinkled 
with  the  cares  of  state,  and  the  garb  of  the  shepherd-boy 
has  become  a  robe  royally  bedizened!  But  as  the  old 
man  finds  out  it  is  actually  Joseph,  I  see  the  thin  lip 
quiver  against  the  toothless  gum  as  he  cries  out,  "  Now 
let  me  die,  since  I  have  seen  thy  face;  behold,  Joseph  is 
yet  alive!"  The  wagons  roll. up  in  front  of  the  palace. 
Help  out  the  grandchildren,  and  take  them  in  out  of  the 
hot  Egyptian  sun.  Help  old  Jacob  out  of  the  wagon. 
Send  word  to  Pharaoh  that  the  old  shepherd  has  come. 
In  the  royal  apartment  Pharaoh  and  Jacob  meet— digni- 
ty and  rusticity — the  gracefulness  of  the  court  and  the 


THE  KING'S  WAGONS.  43 

plain  manners  of  the  field.  The  king,  wanting  to  make 
the  old  countrj^man  at  ease,  and  seeing  how  white  his 
beard  is,  and  how  feeble  his  step,  looks  familiarly  into 
his  face,  and  says  to  the  aged  man,  "  How  old  art  thou  ?" 
Give  the  old  man  a  seat.  Unload  the  wagons ;  drive 
out  the  cattle  toward  the  pastures  of  Goshen.  Let  the 
slaves  in  scarlet  kneel  and  wash  the  feet  of  the  newly- 
arrived,  wiping  them  on  the  finest  linen  of  the  palace. 
From  vases  of  perfume  let  the  newly-arrived  be  sprin- 
kled and  refreshed ;  let  minstrels  come  in  with  sandals 
of  crimson,  and  thrum  the  harps,  and  clap  the  cymbals, 
and  jingle  the  tambourines,  while  we  sit  down,  at  this 
great  distance  of  time  and  space,  and  learn  the  lesson  of  the 
king'^s  luagons. 

My  friends,  we  are  in  a  world  by  sin  famine-struck; 
but  the  King  is  in  constant  communication  with  us,  his 
wagons  coming  and  going  perpetually  ;  and  in  the  rest 
of  my  discourse  I  will  show  you  what  the  wagons  bring 
and  what  they  take  back. 

In  the  first  place,  like  those  that  came  from  the  Egyp- 
tian palace,  the  King's  wagons  now  bring  us  eoryi  and 
7neat,  and^many  changes  of  raiment.  We  are  apt  to  think 
of  the  fields  and  tTTe"^ orchards  as  feeding  us;  but  who 
makes  the  flax  grow  for  the  linen,  and  the  wheat  for  the 
bread,  and  the  wool  on  the  sheep's  back?  Oh,  I  wish 
we  could  see  through  every  grain-field,  by  every  sheep- 
fold,  under  the  trees  of  every  orchard,  the  King's  wag- 
ons! They  drive  up  three  times  a  day — morning,  noon, 
and  night.  They  bring  furs  from  the  arctic,  they  bring 
fruits  from  the  tropic,  they  bring  bread  from  the  temper- 
ate zone.  The  King  looks  out,  and  he  says,  "There  are 
twelve  hundred  millions  of  people  to  be  fed  and  clothed. 


44  THE  KING'S  WAGONS. 

yn  So  many  pounds  of  meat,  so  many  barrels  of  flour,  so 
•  many  yards  of  cloth  and  linen  and  flannel,  so  many 
7^1  hats,  so  many  socks,  so  many  shoes;"  enough  for  all, 
^  save  that  we  who  are  greedy  get  more  shoes  than  be- 
long to  us,  and  others  go  barefooted.  None  but  a  God 
could  feed  and  clothe  the  world.  None  but  a  king's 
corn-crib  could  appease  the  world's  famine.  None  but 
a  king  could  tell  how  many  wagons  to  send,  and  how 
heavily  to  load  them,  and  when  they  are  to  start.  They 
are  coming  over  the  frozen  ground  to-day.  Do  you  not 
hear  their  rumbling?  They  will  stop  at  noon  at  your 
table.  Oh,  if  for  a  little  while  they  should  cease,  hun- 
ger would  come  into  the  nations,  as  to  Utica  wlien  Ha- 
milcar  besieged  it,  and  as  in  Jerusalem  when  Vespasian 
surrounded  it;  and  the  nations  would  be  hollow-eyed, 
and  fall  upon  each  other  in  universal  cannibalism ;  and 
skeleton  would  drop  upon  skeleton  ;  and  there  would  be 
no  one  to  bury  the  dead ;  and  the  earth  would  be  a  field 
of  bleached  skeletons ;  and  the  birds  of  prey  would  fall 
dead,  flock  after  flock,  without  any  carcasses  to  devour; 
and  the  earth  in  silence  would  wheel  around,  one  great 
black  hearse!  All  life  stopped  because  the  King's  wag- 
ons are  stopped.     Oh,  thank  God  for  bread-^or  bread! 

I  remark  again^  that,  like  those  that  came  from  the 

Egyptian  palace,  the  King's  wagons  bring  us  goodjiews. 

Jacob  had  not  heard  from  his  boy  for  a  great  many 

years.     He  never  thought  of  him  but  with  a  heart-ache. 

/"-    There  was  in  Jacob's  heart  a  room  where  lay  the  corpse 

.    'pf  his  unburied  Joseph  ;  and  when  the  wagons  came,  the 

''^/king's  wagons,  and  told  him  that  Joseph  was  yet  alive, 

he   faints   dead   awa}^      Good   news   for   Jacob!    good 

news  for  us!     The  King's  wagons  come  down  and  tell 


THE  KING'S  WAGONS.  45 

US  that  our  Joseph- Jesus  is  3^et  alive;  that  he  has  for- 
given us  because  we  threw  him  into  the  pit  of  suffering 
and  the  dungeon  of  shame.  He  has  risen  from  thence 
to  stand  in  a  palace.  The  Bethlehem  shepherds  were 
awakened  at  midnight  by  the  rattling  of  the  wagons 
that  brought  the  tidings.  Our  Joseph-Jesus  sends  us  a 
message  of  pardon,  of  life,  of  heaven  ;  corn  for  our  hun- 
ger, raiment  for  our  nakedness.  Joseph- Jesus  is  yet  alive! 
I  go  to  hunt  up  Jesus.  I  go  to  the  village  of  Beth- 
any, and  say,  "  Where  does  Mary  live  ?"  They  say, 
"Yonder  Mary  lives."  I  go  in.  I  see  where  she  sat  in 
the  sitting-room.  I  go  out  where  Martha  worked  in  the 
kitchen,  but  I  find  no  Jesus.  I  go  into  Pilate's  court- 
room, and  I  find  the  judges  and  the  police  and  the  pris- 
oner's box,  but  no  Jesus.  I  go  into  the  Arimathean 
cemetery ;  but  the  door  is  gone,  and  the  shroud  is  gone, 
and  Jesus  is  gone.  By  faith  I  look  up  to  the  King's 
palace;  and  behold  I  have  found  him!  Joseph -Jesus 
is  still  alive!  Glorious  religion,  a  religion  made  not  out 
of  deaths'-heads,  and  cross-bones,  and  undertaker's  screw- 
driver, but  one  bounding  with  life,  and  sympathy,  and 
gladness.     Joseph  is  yet  alive ! 

"I  know  that  my  Kedeemer  lives. 

What  comfort  this  sweet  sentence  gives !  ■»    \    J^  *7 

He  lives,  He  lives,  who  once  was  dead,  i-^  ^ 

He  lives,  my  ever-living  Head !  C  vj^  ^ 

"  He  lives  to  grant  me  daily  breath, 
He  lives,  and  I  shall  conquer  death. 
He  lives  my  mansion  to  prepare, 
He  lives  to  bring  me  safely  there. 

"  He  lives,  all  glory  to  His  name ; 
He  lives,  my  Jesus  still  the  same. 
Oh,  the  sweet  joy  this  sentence  gives, 
I  know  that  my  Redeemer  lives ' " 


46  \   (^  \J^  TEE  KING'S  WAGONS. 

The  King's  wagons  will  after  a  w^hile  unload,  and  they 
will  turn  around,  and  they  will  go  back  to  the  palace, 
and  I  really  think  that  you  and  I  will  go  with  them. 
The  King  will  not  leave  us  in  this  famine-struck  world. 
The  King  has  ordered  that  we  be  lifted  into  the  wagons, 
and  that  we  go  over  into  Goshen,  where  there  shall  be 
pasturage  for  our  largest  flock  of  joy,  and  then  we  will 
drive  up  to  the  palace,  where  there  are  glories  awaiting 
us  which  will  melt  all  the  snow  of  Egyptian  marble  into 
forgetfulness. 

I  think  that  the  King's  wagons  will  take  us  up  to  see 
our  lost  friends.  Jacob's  chief  anticipation  was  not  se~e=^ 
ing  the  Nile,  nor  of  seeing  the  long  colonnades  of  archi- 
tectural beauty,  nor  of  seeing  the  throne-room.  There 
was  a  focus  to  all  his  journeyings,  to  all  his  anticipations; 
and  that  was  Joseph.  AYell,  my  friends,  I  do  not  think 
heaven  would  be  w^orth  much  if  our  brother  Jesus  was 
not  there.  If  there  were  two  heavens,  the  one  with  all 
the  pomp  and  paraphernalia  of  an  eternal  monarchy, 
but  no  Christ,  and  the  other  w^ere  a  plain  heaven,  hum- 
bly thatched,  with  a  few  daisies  in  the  yard,  and  Christ 
were  there,  I  would  say,  "Let  the  King's  wagons  take 
me  up  to  the  old  farm-house." 

If  Jesus  were  not  in  heaven,  there  would  be  no  music 
there ;  there  would  be  but  very  few  people  there ;  they 
would  be  off  looking  for  the  lost  Christ,  crying  through 
the  universe,  "Where  is  Jesus?  where  is  Jesus?"  and 
after  they  had  found  him,  with  loving  violence  they 
would  take  him  and  bear  him  through  the  gates;  and  it 
would  be  the  greatest  day  known  in  heaven  within  the 
memory  of  the  oldest  inhabitant.  Jesus  never  went  off 
from  heaven  but  once,  and  he  w^as  so  badly  treated  on 
that  excursion  they  will  never  let  him  go  .again. 


TEE  KIXG'S  WAGONS.  47 

Ob,  the  joy  of  meeting  our  brother,  Joseph -Jesus !  Af- 
ter we  have  talked  about  him  for  ten,  or  fifty,  or  seventy 
years,  to  talk  luith  him,  and  to  clasp  hands  with  the  hero 
of  the  ages ;  not  crouching  as  underlings  in  his  presence, 
but,  as  Jacob  and  Joseph,  hug  each  other.  We  will  want 
some  new  term  by  which  to  address  him.  On  earth  we 
call  him  Saviour,  or  Redeemer,  or  friend ;  but  when  we 
throw  our  arms  around  him  in  everlasting  embrace,  we 
will  want  some  new  name  of  endearment.  I  can  think 
of  what  we  shall  do  through  the  long  ages  of  eternity; 
but  what  we  shall  do  the  first  minute  I  can  not  guess. 
In  the  first  flash  of  his  countenance,  in  the  first  rush  of 
our  emotions,  what  we  shall  do  I  can  not  imagine.  Oh 
the  overwhelming  glory  of  the  first  sixty  seconds  in 
heaven  !  Methinks  we  will  just  stand,  and  look  and  look 
and  look. 

The  king's  wagons  took  Jacob  up  to  see  his  lost  boy, 
and  so  I  really  think  that  the  King's  wagons  will  take 
us  up  to  see  our  lost  kindred.  How  long  is  it  since  Jo- 
seph went  out  of  your  household?  How  many  3'ears  is 
it  now  last  Christmas,  or  the  fourteenth  of  next  month? 
It  was  a  dark  night  when  he  died,  and  a  stormy  day  it 
was  at  the  burial ;  and  the  clouds  wept  with  you,  and  the 
winds  sighed  for  the  dead.  The  bell  at  Greenwood's 
gate  rang  only  a  few  moments,  but  your  heart  has  been 
tolling,  tolling,  ever  since.  You  have  been  under  a  de- 
lusion, like  Jacob  of  old.  You  have  thought  that  Joseph 
was  dead.  You  put  his  name  first  in  the  birth-record  of 
the  family  Bible,  and  then  jo\x  put  it  in  the  death-record 
of  the  family  Bible,  and  you  have  been  deceived.  Joseph 
is  yet  alive.  He  is  more  alive  than  you  are.  Of  all  the 
sixteen  thousand  millions  of  children  that  statisticians 
say  have  gone  into  the  future  world,  there  is  not  one  of 


48  THE  KINO'S  WAQOXS. 

them  dead,  and  tlie  King's  wagons  will  take  you  up  to 
see  them.  You  often  think  how  glad  you  will  be  to  see 
them.  Have  you  never  thought,  my  brother,  my  sister, 
bow  glad  they  will  be  to  see  you  ?  Jacob  was  no  more 
glad  to  see  Joseph  than  Joseph  was  to  see  Jacob.  Every 
time  the  door  in  heaven  opens,  they  look  to  see  if  it  is 
you  coming  in.  Joseph,  once  standing  in  the  palace, 
burst  out  crying  when  he  thought  of  Jacob — afar  off. 
And  the  heaven  of  your  little  ones  will  not  be  fairly  be- 
gun until  you  get  there.  All  the  kindnesses  shown  them 
by  immortals  will  not  make  them  forget  you.  There 
they  are,  the  radiant  throngs  that  went  out  from  your 
homes !  I  throw  a  kiss  to  the  sweet  darlings.  They  are 
all  well  now  in  the  palace.  The  crippled  child  has  a 
sound  foot  now.  A  little  lame  child  says,  "  Ma,  will  I  be 
lame  in  heaven?"  "No,  my  darling  you  won't  be  lame 
in  heaven."  A  little  sick  child  says,  "Ma,  will  I  be 
sick  in  heaven?"  "No,  my  dear,  you  won't  be  sick  in 
heaven."  A  little  blind  child  says,  "Ma,  will  I  be  blind 
in  heaven?"  "No,  my  dear,  you  won't  be  blind  in 
heaven."     They  are  all  well  there. 

In  my  boyhood,  for  some  time  we  lived  three  miles 
from  church,  and  on  stormy  days  the  children  staid  at 
home,  but  father  and  mother  always  went  to  church: 
that  was  a  habit  they  had.  On  those  stormy  Sabbaths 
when  we  staid  at  home,  the  absence  of  our  parents  seem- 
ed very  much  protracted ;  for  the  roads  were  very  bad, 
and  they  could  not  get  on  very  fast.  So  we  would  go  to 
the  window  at  twelve  o'clock  to  see  if  they  were  com- 
ing, and  then  we  would  go  at  half-past  twelve  to  see  if 
they  were  coming,  and  at  a  quarter  to  one,  and  then  at 
one  o'clock.  After  a  while,  Mary,  or  David,  or  De  Witt 
would   shout,  "The   wagon's   coming!"   and   then   we 


THE  KING '  S  WA  G  ONS.  49 

would  see  it  winding  out  of  the  woods,  and  over  the 
brook,  and  through  the  lane,  and  up  in  front  of  the  old 
farm-house;  and  then  we  would  rush  out,  leaving  the 
doors  wide  open,  with  many  things  to  tell  them,  asking 
them  many  questions.  Well,  my  dear  brethren,  I  think 
we  are  many  of  us  in  the  King's  wagons,  and  we  are  on 
the  way  home.  The  road  is  very  bad,  and  we  get  on 
slowly;  but  after  a  while  we  will  come  winding  out  of 
the  woods,  and  through  the  brook  of  death,  and  up  in 
front  of  the  old  heavenly  homestead ;  and  our  departed 
kindred,  who  have  been  waiting  and  watching  for  us, 
will  rush  out  through  the  doors  and  over  the  lawn,  cry- 
ing, "The  wagons  are  coming!  the  King's  wagons  are 
coming!"  Hark!  the  bell  of  the  City  Hall  strikes 
twelve.  Twelve  o'clock  on  earth,  and  likewise  it  is  high 
noon  in  heaven. 

During  the  past  week  some_pf  God's  wagons  have 
come  to  us,  and  a  loved  one  is  gone :  John  R.  Lansing, 
an  elder  of  this  church,  loved  by  me,  loved  by  you  all — 
one  of  those  pure  spirits  that  we  sometimes  see  early  ri- 
pening for  heaven.  I  never  heard  a  young  man  pray  as 
Lansing  did.  He  talked  with  God  like  an  old  Christian. 
Last  Thursday  morning  the  King's  wagon  halted  at  his 
pillow.  There  was  no  one  present  to  see  him  go.  Yes 
there  was;  Jesus  was  there.  I  went  around  afterward 
where  he  dwelt,  and  they  had  nothing  but  words  of 
praise  to  say  of  him — so  kind  he  was,  so  gentle  he  was, 
so  pure  he  was,  so  upright  he  was !  We  picked  him  out 
of  our  large  congregation  as  especially  qualified  for  the 
service  of  the  eldership.  I  have  always  been  glad  since, 
we  did.  He  was  a  young  man  to  be  called  an  elder; 
but  he  was  worthy  of  his  ofl&ce,  and  he  honored  it.     If  I 


h^^>^;;A.-       ^-^  nil 

50  '    I  THE  KING'S  WAGONS.  "1  n^ 

knew  ot  any  better  words  of  eulogium,  honest  eulogium, 
than  those  I  have  already  uttered,  I  Vv'ould  say  them. 
Joy  to  him!  ISTo  more  asthma  or  heart  disease  for  him. 
He  is  well  now.  He  will  never  cough  again.  Joy,  joy ! 
But  ours  is  the  grief,  in  the  elders'  board,  in  the  Sabbatb- 
^ school,  in  the  prayer-meeting — ours  is  the  grief  "Let 
>  ^me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous,  and  let  my  last  end  be 
like  his."  May  God  comfort  those  that  mourn,  especially 
that  aged  mother,  too  feeble  to  hear  of  such  tidings.  I 
do  not  know  but  that  the  King's  wagon  will  take  them 
both  side  by  side  through  the  gates  into  the  city. 

Does  not  the  subject  of  the  morning  take  the  gloom 
out  of  the  thoughts  that  would  otherwise  be  struck 
through  with  midnight?  We  used  to  think  that  when 
we  died  we  would  have  to  go  afoot,  sagging  down  in  the 
mire,  and  the  hounds  of  terror  might  get  after  us,  and 
that  if  we  got  through  into  heaven  at  all,  we  would  come 
in  torn,  and  wounded,  and  bleeding.  I  remember  when 
my  teeth  chattered  and  my  knees  knocked  together  when 
I  heard  any  body  talk  about  death ;  but  I  have  come  to 
think  that  the  grave  will  be  the  softest  bed  I  ever  slept 
in,  and  the  bottom  of  my  feet  will  not  be  wet  with  the 
passage  of  the  Jordan.  "  Them  that  sleep  in  Jesus  will 
God  bring  with  him." 

I  was  reading  a  day  or  two  ago  of  Kobert  Southey, 
who  said  he  wished  he  could  die  far  away  from  his 
friends — like  a  dog,  crawling  into  a  corner  and  dying  un- 
observed. Those  were  his  words.  Be  it  ours  to  die  on 
a  couch  surrounded  by  loved  ones,  so  that  they  with  us 

I  may  hear  the  glad,  sweet,  jubilant  announcement,  "The 

II  King's  wagons  are  coming."     Hark!  I  near  them  now. 
»l  Are  they  coming  for  you  or  me? 


THE  UPPER  AND  NETHER  SPRINGS.  51 


THE  UPPER  AND  NETHER  SPRINGS, 

"Thou  hast  given  me  a  south  land  ;  give  me  also  springs  of  water.    And 
he  gave  her  the  upper  springs  and  the  nether  springs." — Joshua  xv.,  19. 

THE  city  of  Debir  was  the  Boston  of  antiquity — a 
great  place  for  brain  and  books.  Caleb  wanted  it, 
and  he  offered  bis  daughter  Achsah  as  a  prize  to  any  one 
who  would  capture  that  city.  It  was  a  strange  thing  for 
Caleb  to  do ;  and  yet  the  man  that  could  take  the  city 
would  have,  at  any  rate,  two  elements  of  manhood — 
bravery  and  patriotism.  Besides,  I  do  not  think  that 
Caleb  was  as  foolish  in  offering  his  daughter  to  the  con- 
queror of  Debir,  as  thousands  in  this  day  who  seek  alli- 
ances for  their  children  with  those  who  have  large  means, 
without  any  reference  to  moral  or  mental  acquirements. 
Of  two  evils,  I  would  rather  measure  happiness  by  the 
length  of  the  sword  than  by  the  length  of  the  pocket- 
book.  In  one  case  there  is  sure  to  be  one  good  element 
of  character;  in  the  other  there  may  be  none  at  all. 
AVith  Caleb's  daughter  as  a  prize  to  fight  for,  General 
Othniel  rode  into  the  battle.  The  gates  of  Debir  were 
thundered  into  the  dust,  and  the  city  of  books  lay  at  the 
feet  of  the  conquerors.  The  work  done,  Othniel  comes 
back  to  claim  his  bride.  Having  conquered  the  city,  it 
is  no  great  job  for  him  to  conquer  the  girl's  heart;  for 
however  faint-hearted  a  woman  herself  n:iay  be,  she  al- 
ways loves  courage  in  a  man.  I  never  -saw  an  exception 
to  that.  .  The  wedding  festivity  having  gone  by,  Othniel 


62  THE  UPPER  AND  NETHER  SPRINGS'. 

and  Achsah  are  about  to  go  to  their  new  home.  How- 
ever loudly  the  cymbals  may  clash  and  the  laughter 
ring,  parents  are  always  sad  when  a  fondly-cherished 
daughter  goes  off  to  stay ;  and  Achsah,  the  daughter  of 
Caleb,  knows  that  now  is  the  time  to  ask  almost  any 
thing  she  wants  of  her  father.  It  seems  that  Caleb,  the 
good  old  man,  had  given  as  a  wedding -present  to  his 
daughter  a  piece  of  land  that  was  mountainous,  and  slop- 
ing southward  toward  the  deserts  of  Arabia,  swept  with 
some  very  hot  winds.  It  was  called  "  a  south  land." 
But  Achsah  wants  an  addition  of  property  ;  she  wants  a 
piece  of  land  that  is  well  watered  and  fertile.  Now  it  is 
no  wonder  that  Caleb,  standing  amidst  the  bridal  party, 
his  eyes  so  full  of  tears  because  she  was  going  away  that 
he  could  hardly  see  her  at  all,  gives  her  more  than  she 
asks.  She  said  to  him,  "  Thou  hast  given  me  a  south 
land ;  give  me  also  springs  of  water.  And  he  gave  her 
the  upper  springs,  and  the  nether  springs." 

I  never  saw  that  passage  until  a  little  while  ago  ;  and 
as  I  came  upon  it  I  said,  if  God  will  give  me  grace,  I 
shall  preach  a  sermon  upon  that  before  long.  The  fact 
is,  that  as  Caleb,  the  father,  gave  Achsah,  the  daughter,  a 
south  land,  so  God  gives  to  us  his  world.  I  am  very 
thankful  he  has  given  it  to  us.  But  I  am  like  Achsah 
in  the  fact  that  I  am  not  satisfied  with  the  portion. 
Trees,  and  flowers,  and  grass,  and  blue  skies  are  very 
well  in  their  places;  but  he  who  has  nothing  but  this 
'world  for  a  portion  has  no  portion  at  all.  It  is  a  mount- 
ainous land,  sloping  off  toward  the  desert  of  sorrow,  swept 
by  fiery  siroccos;  it  is  "a  south  land,"  a  poor  portion 
for  any  man  that  tries  to  put  his  trust  in  it.  What  has 
been  your  experience?     What  has  been  the  experience 


TEE  UPPER  AND  NETHER  SPRINGS.  58 

of  every  man,  of  every  woman  that  has  tried  this  world 
for  a  portion  ?  Queen  Elizabeth,  amidst  the  surround- 
ings of  pomp,  is  unhappy  because  the  painter  sketches 
too  minutely  the  wrinkles  on  her  face,  and  she  indignant- 
ly cries  out,  "  You  must  strike  off  my  likeness  without 
any  shadows !"  Hogarth,  at  the  very  height  of  his  ar- 
tistic triumph,  is  stung  almost  to  death  with  chagrin  be- 
cause the  painting  he  had  dedicated  to  the  king  does  not 
seem  to  be  acceptable;  for  George  11.  cries  out,  "Who 
is  this  Hogarth?  Take  his  trumpery  out  of  my  pres- 
ence." Brinsley  Sheridan  thrilled  the  earth  with  his  elo- 
quence, but  had  for  his  last  words,  "  I  am  absolutely 
undone."  Walter  Scott,  fumbling  around  the  inkstand, 
trying  to  write,  says  to  his  daughter,  "Oh,  take  me  back 
to  my  room  ;  there  is  no  rest  for  Sir  Walter  but  in  the 
grave!"  Stephen  Girard,  the  wealthiest  man  in  his  day, 
or,  at  any  rate,  only  second  in  wealth,  says,  "I  live  the 
life  of  a  galley-slave  :  when  I  arise  in  the  morning  my  one 
effort  is  to  work  so  hard  that  I  can  sleep  when  it  gets  to 
be  night."  Charles  Lamb,  applauded  of  all  the  v/orld, 
in  the  very  midst  of  his  literary  triumph,  says,  "Do  you 
remember,  Bridget,  when  we  used  to  laugh  from  the  shil- 
ling gallery  at  the  play  ?  There  are  now  no  good  plays 
to  laugh  at  from  the  boxes."  But  why  go  so  far  as  that  ? 
I  need  to  go  no  farther  than  your  street  to  find  an  illus- 
tration of  what  I  am  saying. 

Pick  me  out  ten  successful  worldlings — and  you  know 
what  I  mean  by  thoroughly  successful  worldlings — pick 
me  out  ten  successful  worldlings,  and  you.  can  not  find 
more  than  one  that  looks  happy.  Care  drags  him  across 
the  ferry  ;  care  drags  him  back.  Take  your  stand  at  two 
o'clock  at  the  corner  of  Nassau  and  Wall  streets,  or  at 


54  TEE  UPPER  AND  NETHER   SPRINGS. 

the  corner  of  Canal  Street  and  Broadwa}^,  and  see  the 
agonized  physiognomies.  Your  bankers,  your  insurance 
men,  your  importers,  your  wholesalers,  and  your  retail- 
ers, as  a  class — as  a  class,  are  they  happy  ?  No.  Care 
dogs  their  steps ;  and,  making  no  appeal  to  God  for 
help  or  comfort,  they  are  tossed  everywhither,  while  Jay 
Gould  makes  New  York  quake  from  Central  Park  to 
the  Battery.  How  has  it  been  with  you,  my  hearer? 
Are  you  more  contented  in  the  house  of  fourteen  rooms 
than  you  were  in  the  two  rooms  you  had  in  a  house 
when  you  started  ?  Have  you  not  had  more  care  and 
worriment  since  you  won  that  fifty  thousand  dollars  than 
you  did  before  ?  Some  of  the  poorest  men  I  have  ever 
known  have  been  those  of  great  fortune.  A  man  of 
small  means  may  be  put  in  great  business  straits,  but  the 
ghastliest  of  all  embarrassments  is  that  of  the  man  who 
has  large  estates.  The  men  who  commit  suicide  because 
of  monetary  losses  are  those  who  can  not  bear  the  bur- 
den any  more,  because  they  have  only  fifty  thousand 
dollars  left. 

On  Bowling  Green,  New  York,  there  is  a  house  where 
Talleyrand  used  to  go.  He  was  a  favorite  man.  All 
the  world  knew  him,  and  he  had  wealth  almost  unlimit- 
ed; yet  at  the  close  of  his  life  he  says,  "Behold,  eighty- 
three  years  have  passed  without  any  practical  result,  save 
fatigue  of  body  and  fatigue  of  mind,  great  discourage- 
ment for  the  future,  and  great  disgust  for  the  past."  Oh, 
my  friends,  this  is  "  a  south  land,"  and  it  slopes  off  to- 
ward deserts  of  sorrows ;  and  the  prayer  which  Achsah 
made  to  her  father  Caleb  we  make  this  day  to  our  Father 
God:  "Thou  hast  given  me  a  south  land;  give  me  also 
springs  of  water.  And  he  gave  them  the  upper  springs, 
and  the  nether  springs." 


THE  UPPER  AND  NETHER  SPRINGS.  55 

Blessed  be  God !  we  have  more  advantages  given  us 
than  we  can  really  appreciate.  We  have  spiritual  bless- 
ings offered  us  in  this  world  which  I  shall  call  the  nether 
springs,  and  glories  in  the  world  to  come  which  I  shall 
call  the  upper  springs. 

Where  shall  I  find  words  enough  threaded  with  light 
to  set  forth  the  pleasure  of  religion  ?  David,  unable  to 
describe  it  in  words,  played  it  on  a  harp.  Mrs.  Hemans, 
not  finding  enough  power  in  prose,  sings  that  praise  in  a 
canto.  Christopher  Wren,  unable  to  describe  it  in  lan- 
guage, sprung  it  into  the  arches  of  St.  Paul's.  John 
Bunyan,  unable  to  present  it  in  ordinary  phraseology, 
takes  all  the  fascination  of  allegory.  Handel,  with  ordi- 
nary music  unable  to  reach  the  height  of  the  theme,  rouses 
it  up  in  an  oratorio.  Oh,  there  is  no  life  on  earth  so 
happy  as  a  really  Christian  life !  I  do  not  mean  a  sham 
Christian  life,  but  a  real  Christian  life.  Where  there  is 
a  thorn,  there  is  a  whole  garland  of  roses.  Where  there 
is  one  groan,  there  are  three  doxologies.  Where  there 
is  one  day  of  cloud,  there  is  a  whole  season  of  sunshine. 
Take  the  humblest  Christian  man  that  you  know — angels 
of  God  canopy  him  with  their  white  wings;  the  light- 
nings of  heaven  are  his  armed  allies;  the  Lord  is  his 
Shepherd,  picking  out  for  him  green  pastures  by  still  wa- 
ters; if  he  walk  forth,  heaven  is  his  body-guard;  if  he  lie 
down  to  sleep,  ladders  of  light,  angel-blossoming,  are  let 
into  his  dreams;  if  he  be  thirsty,  the  potentates  of  heav- 
en are  his  cup-bearers ;  if  he  sit  down  to  food,  his  plain 
table  blooms  into  the  King's  banquet.  Men  say,  "  Look 
at  that  old  fellow  with  the  worn-out  coat;"  the  angels  of 
God  cry,  "Lift  up  your  heads,  ye  everlasting  gates,  and 
let  hmi  come  in  I"     Fastidious  people  cry,  "  Get  off  mj 

3 


56  THE  UPPER  AND  NETHER  SPRINGS. 

front  steps!"  the  door-keepers  of  heaven  cry,  "Come 
you,  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom !"  When 
he  comes  to  die,  though  he  may  be  carried  out  in  a  pine 
box  to  the  potter's  field,  to  that  potter's  field  the  chariots 
of  Christ  will  come  down,  and  the  cavalcade  will  crowd 
all  the  boulevards  of  heaven. 

I  bless  Christ  for  the  present  satisfaction  of  religion. 
It  makes  a  man  all  right  with  reference  to  the  past;  it 
makes  a  man  all  right  with  reference  to  the  future.  Oh 
these  nether  springs  of  comfort!  They  are  perennial. 
The  foundation  of  God  standeth  sure  having  this  seal, 
"  The  Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  his."  "  The  mount- 
ains shall  depart  and  the  hills  be  removed,  but  my  kind- 
ness shall  not  depart  from  thee,  neither  shall  the  cove- 
nant of  my  peace  be  removed,  saith  the  Lord,  who  hath 
mercy  upon  them."  Oh,  cluster  of  diamonds  set  in 
burnished  gold !  Oh,  nether  springs  of  comfort  bursting 
through  all  the  valleys  of  trial  and  tribulation!  When 
you  see,  you  of  the  world,  what  satisfaction  there  is  on 
earth  in  religion,  do  you  not  thirst  after  it  as  the  daugh- 
ter of  Caleb  thirsted  after  the  water-springs?  It  is  no 
stagnant  pond,  scummed  over  with  malaria,  but  springs 
of  water  leaping  from  the  Kock  of  Ages !  Take  up  one 
cup  of  that  spring-water,  and  across  the  top  of  the  chalice 
will  float  the  delicate  shadows  of  the  heavenly  wall,  the 
yellow  of  jasper,  the  green  of  emerald,  the  blue  of  sar- 
donyx, the  fire  of  jacinth. 

I  wish  I  could  make  you  understand  the  joy  religion 
is  to  some  of  us.  It  makes  a  man  happy  while  he  lives, 
and  glad  when  he  dies.  With  two  feet  upon  a  chair 
and  bursting  with  dropsies,  I  heard  an  old  man  in  the 
poor-house  cry  out,  "  Bless  the  Lord,  oh  my  soul !"     I 


THE   UPPEE  AND  NETHER  SPRINGS.  57 

looked  around  and  said,  ''  What  has  this  man  got  to 
thank  God  for?"  It  makes  the  lame  man  leap  as  a  hart, 
and  the  dumb  sing.  They  say  that  the  old  Puritan  re- 
ligion is  a  juiceless  and  joyless  religion  ;  but  I  remember 
reading  of  Dr.  Goodwin,  the  celebrated  Puritan,  who  in 
his  last  moment  said,  "Is  this  dying?  Why,  my  bow 
abides  in  strength !  I  am  swallowed  up  in  God !"  "  Her 
ways  are  ways  of  pleasantness,  and  all  her  paths  are 
peace."  Oh,  you  who  have  been  trying  to  satisfy  your- 
selves with  the  "south  land"  of  this  world,  do  you  not 
feel  that  you  would,  this  morning,  like  to  have  access 
to  the  nether  springs  of  spiritual  comfort?  Would  3^ou 
not  like  to  have  Jesus  Christ  bend  over  your  cradle  and 
bless  your  table  and  heal  your  wounds,  and  strew  flow- 
ers of  consolation  all  up  and  down  the  graves  of  your 
dead? 

"  'Tis  religion  that  can  give 
Sweetest  pleasures  while  we  live : 
'Tis  religion  can  supply 
Sweetest  comfort  when  we  die." 

But  I  have  something  better  to  tell  you,  suggested  by 
this  text.  It  seems  that  old  Father  Caleb  on  the  wed- 
ding-day of  his  daughter  wanted  to  make  her  just  as 
happy  as  possible.  Though  Othniel  was  taking  her 
away,  and  his  heart  was  almost  broken  because  she  was 
going,  yet  he  gives  her  a  "south  land;"  not  only  that, 
but  the  nether  springs ;  not  only  that,  but  the  upper 
springs.  0  God !  my  Father,  I  thank  thee  that  thou 
hast  given  me  a  "south  land"-  in  this  world,  and  the 
nether  springs  of  spiritual  comfort  in  this  world ;  but, 
more  than  all,  I  thank  thee  for  the  upper  springs  in 
heaven. 


58  THE  UPPER  AND  NETHER  SPRINGS. 

It  is  very  fortunate  that  we  can  not  see  heaven  until 
we  get  into  it.  Oh,  Christian  man,  if  you  could  see  what 
a  place  it  is,  we  would  never  get  you  back  again  to  the 
office  or  store  or  shop,  and  the  duties  you  ought  to  per- 
form would  go  neglected.  I  am  glad  I  shall  not  see 
that  world  until  I  enter  it.  Suppose  we  were  allowed 
to  go  on  an  excursion  into  that  good  land  with  the  idea 
of  returning.  When  we  got  there,  and  heard  the  song, 
and  looked  at  their  raptured  faces,  and  mingled  in  the 
supernal  society,  we  would  cry  out,  "  Let  us  stay !  We 
are  coming  here  anyhow.  Why  take  the  trouble  of  go- 
ing back  again  to  that  old  world  ?  We  are  here  now ; 
let  us  stay."  And  it  would  take  angelic  violence  to  put 
us  out  of  that  world,  if  once  we  got  there.  But  as  peo- 
ple who  can  not  afford  to  pay  for  an  entertainment 
sometimes  come  around  it  and  look  through  the  door 
ajar,  or  through  the  openings  in  the  fence,  so  we  come 
and  look  through  the  crevices  into  that  good  land  which 
God  has  provided  for  us.  We  can  just  catch  a  glimpse 
of  it.  We  come  near  enough  to  hear  the  rumbling  of 
the  eternal  orchestra,  though  not  near  enough  to  know 
who  blows  the  cornet  or  who  fingers  the  harp.  My  soul 
spreads  out  both  wings  and  claps  them  in  triumph  at 
the  thought  of  those  upper  springs.  One  of  them  breaks 
from  beneath  the  throne ;  another  breaks  forth  from  be- 
neath the  altar  of  the  temple;  another  at  the  door  of 
"  the  house  of  many  mansions."  Upper  springs  of  glad- 
ness! upper  springs  of  light!  upper  springs  of  love!  It 
is  no  fancy  of  mine.  "The  Lamb  which  is  in  the  midst 
of  the  throne  shall  lead  them  to  living  fountains  of  wa- 
ter." Oh,  Saviour  divine,  roll  in  upon  our  souls  one  of 
those  anticipated  raptures!     Pour  around  the  roots  of 


THE  UPPER  AND  NETHER  SPRINGS.  59 

the  parched  tongue  one  drop  of  that  liquid  life!  Toss 
before  our  vision  those  fountains  of  God,  rainbowed  with 
eternal  victory.  Hear  it!  They  are  never  sick  there; 
not  so  much  as  a  headache,  or  twinge  rheumatic,  or 
thrust  neuralgic.  The  inhabitant  never  says,  "I  am 
sick."  They  are  never  tired  there.  Flight  to  farthest 
w^orld  is  only  the  play  of  a  holiday.  They  never  sin 
there.  It  is  as  easy  for  them  to  be  holy  as  it  is  for  us 
to  sin.  They  never  die  there.  You  might  go  through 
all  the  outskirts  of  the  great  city  and  find  not  one  place 
where  the  ground  was  broken  for  a  grave.  The  eye- 
sight of  the  redeemed  is  never  blurred  with  tears.  There 
is  health  in  every  cheek.  There  is  spring  in  every  foot. 
There  is  majesty  on  every  brow.  There  is  joy  in  every 
heart.  There  is  hosanna  on  every  lip.  How  they  must 
pity  us  as  they  look  over  and  look  down  and  see  us, 
and  say,  "  Poor  things  away  down  in  that  world  !"  And 
when  some  Christian  is  hurled  into  a  fatal  accident,  they 
cry,  "  Good,  he  is  coming!"  And  when  we  stand  around 
the  couch  of  some  loved  one  (whose  strength  is  going 
away)  and  we  shake  our  heads  forebodinglj^,  they  cry, 
"I  am  glad  he  is  worse;  he  has  been  down  there  long 
enough.  There,  he  is  dead  !  Come  home!  come  home!" 
Oh,  if  we  could  only  get  our  ideas  about  that  future 
world  untwisted,  our  thought  of  transfer  from  here  to 
there  w^ould  be  as  pleasant  to  us  as  it  was  to  a  little 
child  that  was  dying.  She  said,  "Papa,  when  will  I 
go  home?"  And  he  said,  "  To-day,  Florence."  "To- 
day? so  soon?     I  am  so  glad !" 

I  wish  I  could  stimulate  you  with  these  thoughts,  oh 
Christian  man,  to  the  highest  possible  exhilaration.  The 
day  of  your  deliverance  is  coming,  is  coming-     It  is  roll- 


60  THE  UPPER  AND  NETHER  SPRINGS. 

ing  on  with  the  shining  wheels  of  the  day,  and  the  jet 
wheels  of  the  night.  Every  thump  of  the  heart  is  only 
a  hammer-stroke  striking  off  another  chain  of  clay.  Bet- 
ter scour  the  deck  and  coil  the  rope,  for  harbor  is  only 
six  miles  away.  Jesus  will  come  down  in  the  "Nar- 
rows "  to  meet  you.  "  Now  is  your  salvation  nearer  than 
when  you  believed." 

Unforgiven  man,  unpardoned  man,  will  you  not  to-day 
make  a  choice  between  these  two  portions,  between  the 
"south  land"  of -this  world,  which  slopes  to  the  desert, 
and  this  glorious  land  which  thy  Father  offers  thee,  run- 
ning with  eternal  water-courses?  Why  let  your  tongue 
be  consumed  of  thirst  when  there  are  the  nether  springs 
and  the  upper  springs:  comfort  here,  and  glory  hereafter? 

Let  me  tell  you,  my  dear  brother,  that  the  silliest  and 
wickedest  thing  a  man  ever  does  is  to  reject  Jesus  Ctirist. 
The  loss  of  the  soul  is  a  mistake  that  can  never  be  cor- 
rected. It  is  a  downfall  that  knows  no  alleviation ;  it 
is  a  ruin  that  is  remediless ;  it  is  a  sickness  that  has  no 
medicament;  it  is  a  grave  into  which  a  man  goes  but 
never  comes  out.  Therefore,  putting  my  hand  on  your 
shoulder,  as  one  brother  puts  his  hand  on  the  shoulder 
of  a  brother,  I  say  this  day,  be  manly,  and  surrender  your 
heart  to  Christ.  You  have  been  long  enough  serving 
the  world ;  now  begin  to  serve  the  Lord  who  bought 
you.  You  have  tried  long  enough  to  carry  these  bur- 
dens; let  Jesus  Christ  put  his  shoulder  under  your  bur- 
dens. Do  I  hear  any  one  in  the  audience  say,  "  I  mean 
to  attend  to  that  after  a  while;  it  is  not  just  the  time?" 
It  is  the  time,  for  the  simple  reason  that  you  are  sure 
of  no  other;  and  God  sent  you  into  the  Academy  of 
Music  this  morning,  and  he  sent  me  here  to  confront  you 


THE  UPPER  AND  NETHER  SPRINGS.  61 

witb  this  message ;  and  you  must  hear  now  that  Christ 
died  to  save  your  soul,  and  that  if  you  want  to  be  saved 
you  may  be  saved.  "  Whosoever  will,  let  him  come." 
You  will  never  find  any  more  convenient  season  than 
this.  Some  of  you  have  been  waiting  ten,  twenty,  thirty, 
forty,  fifty,  and  sixty  years.  On  some  of  you  the  snow 
has  fallen.  I  see  it  on  your  brow,  and  yet  you  have  not 
attended  to  those  duties  which  belong  to  the  very  spring- 
time of  life.  It  is  September  with  you  now,  it  is  Octo- 
ber with  you,  it  is  December  with  you.  I  am  no  alarm- 
ist. I  simply  know  this :  if  a  man  does  not  repent  in 
this  world  he  never  repents  at  all,  and  that  now  is  the 
accepted  time,  and  now  is  the  day  of  salvation.  Oh,  put 
off  this  matter  no  longer.  Do  not  turn  your  back  on 
Jesus  Christ  who  comes  to  save  you,  lest  you  should  lose 
your  soul. 

Last  Monday  morning  a  friend  of  mine  started  from 
New  York  to  celebrate  her  birthday  with  her  daughter 
in  Virginia.  Yesterday  morning,  just  after  sunrise,  I 
stood  at  the  gate  of  Greenwood  waiting  for  her  silent 
form  to  come  in.  It  was  only  a  few  weeks  ago  she  sat 
out  yonder  in  the  gallery  while  I  preached.  It  is  a  long 
journey  to  take  in  one  week — from  New  York  to  Phil- 
adelphia, from  Philadelphia  to  Baltimore,  from  Baltimore 
to  Washington,  from  Washington  to  Virginia,  from  Vir- 
ginia into  the  great  Eternity  !  "  What  thy  hand  findeth 
to  do,  DO  IT." 


62  WRECK  OF  THE  ''VILLE  DU  HAVRE: 


I 


WEECK  OF  THE  ''YILLE  DU  HAYEK" 

"  In  perils  of  waters." — 2  Corinthians  xi.,  26. 

T  required  courage  either  to  be  a  sailor  or  a  voyager 
in  olden  times,  the  ships  were  so  small,  so  clumsy,  so 
unmanageable — the  islands,  the  rocks,  the  shores  so  poor- 
ly defined  ;  no  weather  "probabilities,"  no  signals  hoist- 
ed, no  light-houses.  It  was  almost  impossible  to  hail  a 
vessel  if  in  distress,  because  ships  were  seldom  seen ! 
Sailors  might  have  cried,  "  Ship  ahoy  !"  "  Haul  down  the 
flying-jib  1"  or  "  Brace  her  cross-jack  yards  sharp  aback !" 
Nobody  would  have  noticed  it.  Only  here  and  there  a 
vessel  traversing  the  deep ;  and  a  vessel  might  go  on  for 
days  and  weeks,  and  not  hail  a  single  sail.  Yet  I  am 
not  certain  but  there  are  as  great  perils  now  on  the 
sea  as  there  were  then,  notwithstanding  our  perfect  sea- 
charts  and  our  light-houses  and  our  sextants  and  our 
iron-clads,  and  the  fact  that  there  are  flags  flying  all 
along  the  coast  telling  sailors,  "  Beware,  for  the  storm  is 
coming."  The  danger  arises  now  from  the  multiplicity 
of  crafts.  The  captain  in  mid- Atlantic  puts  the  sea-glass 
to  his  eye  and  sweeps  the  horizon,  and  perhaps  in  the 
distance  sees  a  full-rigged  brig,  bark,  ship,  or  steamer  of 
the  Cunard,  White  Star,  Inman,  and  National  lines.  It 
is  a  fact  that  in  one  year  in  this  country  there  were  built 
over  fifty  sea-going  steamers.  Every  year  there  are  fish- 
ing-smacks along  the  Banks  of  Newfoundland  run  down 


WMECK   OF  THE  ''VILLE  DU  HAVREy  63 

in  the  fog;  and  the  only  report  of  it  is  that  John  and 
George  come  not  back  to  their  home,  and  the  women 
weep,  and  the  children  starve.  Last  summer,  in  the 
thick  night,  I  heard  the  fog-horns  of  the  fishermen  off 
Newfoundland  within  twenty  yards  of  where  our  levia- 
than ship  ran  by.  If  Paul  in  his  day,  because  of  the  im- 
perfect sea  equipment,  could  talk  of  "perils  of  waters," 
certainly  we  may  in  this  day,  because  of  the  multiplicity 
of  crafts  and  the  danger  of  collision. 

Only  a  few  days  ago  the  Loch  Earn^  a  vessel  of  one 
thousand  two  hundred  tons,  bowsprit  steel-plated,  weigh- 
ed anchor  in  English  waters.  Only  a  few  days  ago  the 
Yille  du  Havre  was  ready  to  sail  from  New  York.  The 
usual  warning  was  given  on  deck,  "All  ashore  that's 
going !"  Then  the  gangways  were  cleared  and  the 
planks  hauled  in,  and  the  usual  flirewell  waving,  and,  as 
though  foreboding  evil,  a  young  man  stands  on  deck  and 
waves  to  his  friends  ashore,  crying,  "Good-bye ;  you  will 
never  see  me  again  on  this  side  the  water !"  It  seemed 
almost  impossible  that  two  vessels  starting  from  such 
distant  ports  should  even  hail  each  other  on  the  sea. 
Nevertheless,  they  came  on  through  day  and  night,  and 
darkness  and  storm,  and  fog  and  sunshine,  approxima- 
ting, as  though  they  had  appointed  a  place  and  a  time 
for  meeting.  The  Loch  Earn  sometimes  took  a  differ- 
ent tack,  and  the  Ville  du  Havre  changed  sometimes  its 
course,  but  nevertheless  approximating  all  the  while,  the 
hour  for  their  meeting  coming  very  soon.  It  is  twelve 
o'clock  at  night.  The  bells  have  sounded.  It  is  one 
o'clock  in  the  mornino:.  It  is  two  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing.  Lights  hung  in  the  rigging.  The  helmsman  at  the 
wheel.     The  fireman  down  at  the  furnace.     The  watch 

8* 


64  WRECK  OF  THE  ''VILLE  BU  HAVREy 

pacing  the  lookout.  The  passengers  asleep  in  the  berths 
and  cabins  ;  when  crash  !  came  the  Loch  Earn  midships 
the  Villa  da  Havre.  They  who  were  around  the  gang- 
way rushed  to  the  decks,  and  mariners  and  passengers  ran 
wild,  and  some  stark  mad,  and  there  was  a  rush  for  the 
life-boats,  and  a  cry  to  God  and  man  for  help.  No  time 
to  put  on  life-preservers.  No  time  to  sound  the  min- 
ute-gun of  distress  across  the  sea.  Here  they  kneel  in 
prayer;  yonder  leap  into  the  wave;  there  they  stand 
white  with  horror.  The  thought  of  home  and  loved  ones 
far  away  comes  over  them,  and  they  feel  as  if  they  can 
not,  must  not  die.  But  already  the  steamer  has  begun 
to  sink.  Pull  away  there  in  the  life-boats,  lest  you  be 
sucked  down  in  the  awful  ingulfment!  Pull  away  there 
in  the  life-boats!  The  mizzen  mast  crashes  upon  some 
of  the  life-boats  and  they  are  gone,  and  the  steamer  sinks. 
As  it  goes  down  toward  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  down 
lower,  until  the  deck  is  even  with  the  wave,  the  com- 
bined, the  unearthl}^,  the  stupendous  shriek  of  two  hun- 
dred and  twelve  passengers  rends  the  air  of  earth  and 
heaven  with  the  catastrophe. 

I  can  not,  as  a  minister  of  Christ  and  as  a  lover 
of  humanity,  let  this  solemn  occurrence  pass  without 
learning  for  myself  and  teaching  you  three  or  four  les- 
sons. 

And  first  I  learn  the  responsibility  of  those  who  hold  the 
lives,  or  the  pro}oerty,  or  the  souls  of  men  in  keeping.  I  will 
leave  to  the  marine  authorities  to  say  who  were  guilty; 
but  it  is  certain  that  there  is  wickedness  somewhere. 
No  fog,  no  storm,  clear  starlight;  and  yet  five  hundred, 
perhaps  one  thousand  families,  in  this  country  and  in 
Europe,  are  whelmed  in  bereavement  to-day.     I  will  not 


WRECK  OF  THE  ''VILLE  DU  HAVRE y  65 

say  who  is  to  blame,  I  do  not  know  who  is  to  blame ; 
but  the  two  continents  have  been  impaneled  as  coroner's 
jury,  and  have  rendered  the  verdict,  "Appalling  guilt 
somewhere!"  The  commanders  of  steamships,  the  en- 
gineers of  locomotives,  the  conductors  of  rail-trains,  the 
architects  of  buildings,  the  pilots  of  steamboats,  have  in 
their  hands  and  on  their  shoulders  very  great  responsi- 
bility. God  will  hold  them  to  account  for  what  they  do 
with  the  lives  and  with  the  souls  of  men.  It  may  have 
seemed  a  very  insignificant  thing  connected  with  this 
disaster  that  there  were  thirty-four  thousand  bushels  of 
wheat  that  went  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea ;  but  I  do  not 
think  it  was  at  all  insignificant  when  there  are  so  many 
starving^  for  bread.  The  world  could  not  afford  to  waste 
thirty-four  thousand  bushels  of  wheat.  The  responsibil- 
ity must  rest  somewhere.  Pastors  of  churches,  private 
Christians  who  hold  in  their  hands  the  souls  of  people, 
had  better  look  out  what  they  do  with  them  —  all  the 
time  having  a  light  hung  out,  keeping  the  helm  up,  ring- 
ing the  bells  of  warning,  standing  on  the  lookout,  obey- 
ing the  injunction,  watch ! 

I  tell  you  plainly  that  I  would  rather  have  been  Cap- 
tain Williams  running  the  Atlantic  last  spring  on  Mars 
Head  Eock  until  five  hundred  people  dropped  into  the 
wave,  than  be  a  "Christian"  minister,  yet  by  preaching 
a  wrong  theology  conduct  an  audience  of  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  immortal  men  and  women  into  an  eternal 
catastrophe.  "  When  I  say  to  the  wicked,  '  Thou  shalt 
surely  die,'  and  thou  givest  him  no  warning,  nor  speak- 
est  to  warn  the  wicked  from  his  wickedness — that  same 
man  shall  die  in  his  iniquity,  but  his  blood  will  I  require 
at  thy  hands." 


QQ  WRECK  OF  TEE  ''VILLE  BTJ  HAVRE:' 

"  'Tis  not  a  cause  of  small  import, 
The  pastor's  care  demands ; 
But  what  might  fill  an  angel's  heart — 
It  filled  a  Saviour's  hand." 

Oh,  men  who  have  under  your  charge  the  bodies,  the 
property,  the  souls  of  immortal  men,  look  out  how  you 
discharge  your  responsibility ! 

Again,  I  learn  from  this  disaster  at  sea  that,  lolien  ive 
part  from  our  friends^  reunion  is  uncertain.  A  voyage  to 
Europe  is  so  common,  a  journey  to  any  part  of  our  coun- 
try so  common,  that  when  we  part  from  our  friends  we 
expect  certainly  to  see  them  again.  My  counsel  to  you 
is  that  if  you  have  any  duty  to  peiform  toward  your 
friends  in  regard  to  their  eternal  interests,  you  had  bet- 
ter perform  that  duty  before  they  take  steamer  or  rail 
car.  If  there  were  any  impenitent  persons  who  perished 
in  that  wreck  of  the  Ville  du  Havre^  how  do  you  suppose 
their  unfaithful  Christian  friends  feel  about  it  now  ?  They 
are  saying  this  very  day,  "  Oh,  if  on  the  15th  of  Novem- 
ber, when  I  stood  on  the  steamer's  deck  or  stood  on  the 
wharf,  before  that  vessel  sailed,  I  had  just  asked  them  to 
come  to  Christ  and  make  preparations  for  eternity  !  But 
that  was  my  last  chance — it  was  my  last  chance !"  If 
your  friends  have  already  gone  from  you  on  a  voyage  or 
journey,  write  to  them  to-mori-ow  morning  by  the  first 
mail,  lest  they  die  on  their  way  back,  and  you  have  a 
harrowing  of  the  soul  for  them  because  you  did  not  do 
your  duty  toward  them.  I  believe  that  there  are  thou- 
sands and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  souls  out  of  Christ 
to-day  simply  because  Christian  friends  do  not  do  their 
duty.  Did  you  notice  that  one  strangely  thrilling  tele- 
gram that  came  last  week  ?     A  husband  and  father  sent 


WRECK  OF  THE  ''VILLE  DU  IlAVREy  G7 

out  a  wife  and  daughter  on  tbeir  excursion.  Thej^  took 
the  Yille  du  Havre.  The  wife  went  down  in  the  wreck  ; 
the  daughter  was  rescued,  and  she  telegraphed  to  her  fa- 
ther in  New  York,  "  I  am  saved  !  AloneP^  Oh,  will  that 
be  the  history  of  any  family  in  this  house  to-day?  Will 
you  at  last  reach  heaven,  and  the  rest  be  lost  ?  Having 
so  many  opportunities  of  bringing  your  friends  and  your 
families  into  the  kingdom  of  God,  will  it  be  announced 
at  the  last  that  you  are  "  saved !    Aloner'' 

I  further  learn  from  this  disaster  at  sea  that  elegant 
surrounding  is  no  security.  The  most  of  people  could  not 
afford  to  take  that  line  of  steamers.  The  fare  is  higher 
on  that  line  of  steamers  than  on  any  that  sail  the  sea. 
It  was  a  vessel  of  five  thousand  four  hundred  tons.  It 
had  cost,  in  its  building  and  in  its  repair,  one  million  five 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  saloons  were  upholstered 
with  crimson  and  gold ;  but  iceberg  and  storm  and  dark- 
ness and  collision  can  see  no  difference  between  magnifi- 
cent mail  steamship,  and  Nantucket  whaler,  with  rusty 
bolts  and  greasy  deck.  The  plush,  the  tapestry,  the 
paintings,  the  cut  glass,  the  statuary,  went  down  with 
the  passengers.  Oh,  my  hearer,  do  not  think  that  brill- 
iant surroundings  will  keep  off  the  last  foe !  Belshazzar, 
in  the  banqueting-hall ;  Napoleon  III.,  in  t'he  mansion  at 
Chiselhurst ;  the  Prince  of  Wales,  in  Windsor  Castle  ;  the 
German  emperor,  now  wheeled  every  day  from  table  to 
bed,  and  from  bed  to  table,  in  his  serious  illness ;  the  pas- 
sengers of  the  Yille  du  Havre^  in  gilded  cabin  and  amidst 
brilliant  companionship,  are  summoned  away.  The  arm- 
ed sentinel  stands  at  the  gate  of  the  king's  palace.  A 
man  comes  up.  However  great  he  may  be,  the  sentinel 
cries  "  Halt !"  and  the  man  has  to  halt.    But  Death  comes 


68  WRECK  OF  THE  ''VILLE  DU  HAVEE.'' 

to  the  gate  and  captures  both  gate  and  sentinel.  If  those 
people  on  this  fated  steamer  could  have  exchanged  their 
money  for  life,  would  not  they  have  given  it?  Oh  yes. 
One  would  have  cried  out,  "  Here  are  twenty  thousand 
dollars  for  one  day."  Another  would  have  cried  out, 
*'  I'll  give  you  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  one 
hour."  Another  would  have  said,  "Two  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  for  five  minutes  more."  Ah,  Death  can  not 
be  bribed !  He  comes  with  muddy  feet,  from  walking 
amidst  the  upturned  earth  of  new-made  graves,  and  blun- 
ders over  the  finest  carpets,  and  sets  his  spade  against 
the  head-board  of  rose-wood  bedstead.  "  They  that  boast 
themselves  in  the  multitude  of  their  riches,  none  of  them 
can  by  any  means  redeem  his  brother  nor  give  to  God 
a  ransom  for  him,  that  he  should  not  see  corruption : 
the  wise  men  die,  likewise  the  fool  and  the  brutish  per- 
son, and  leave  their  wealth  to  others."  Do  not  think 
that  brilliant  companionship  and  gorgeous  surrounding 
will  defend  you  against  the  last  foe. 

Again,  I  learn  from  this  accident  at  sea  that  there 
are  some  Christians  nearer  to  glory  than  they  think.  To 
many  of  the  passengers  on  that  ship  death  was  transla- 
tion. They  arrived  at  a  better  port  than  France  could 
have  afforded  them.  They  did  not  know,  when  they 
went  to  sleep  that  night,  that  they  were  so  near  the 
jasper  sea,  so  near  the  throne  of  Christ,  so  near  reunion 
with  the  friends  gone  before,  so  near  to  the  end  of  all 
pain,  and  struggle,  and  trial.  If  they  had  had  any  ap- 
preciation of  the  coming  joy,  they  could  not  have  slept  a 
wink  that  night.  They  would  have  said,  "In  one  hour 
I  shall  be  with  Christ  in  glory."  Heaven  was  a  surprise 
to  them.    I  suppose,  for  the  past  few  days  they  had  been 


WRECK  OF  THE  ''VILLE  DU  HAVREy  69 

thinking  about  how  their  friends  would  look  when  they 
came  down  the  gangway,  as  they  arrived  in  port.  Per- 
haps they  were  thinking  how  the  mementoes  would  look 
that  were  packed  away  in  their  trunks  —  mementoes  of 
American  travel.  But  God  had  a  better  reunion  for 
them,  and  a  better  gladness. 

Some  of  them  were  ministers  of  the  Grospel.  I  sup- 
pose that  the  same  Jesus  they  had  preached  in  Madrid,  and 
Paris,  and  Geneva,  stood  by  them  on  the  parting  deck. 
I  suppose  that  when  the  Loch  Earn  crashed  in  on  the  one 
side,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  walked  the  water  on  the  other 
side.  Some  of  those  men  of  God  worshiped  with  us 
in  this  buikling  only  a  few  Sabbaths  ago.  One  of  them 
sat  in  that  very  box.  I  sent  word  to  a  member  of  my 
family  to  stand,  and  to  give  the  brother  a  seat.  I  did 
not  know  he  was  so  near  to  glory,  so  near  to  the  man- 
sions of  the  skies,  so  near  heaven.  I  did  not  realize  it. 
It  was  ray  only  opportunity  of  showing  him  any  courte- 
sy. I  never  came  any  nearer  to  him  than  that.  Oh!  my 
friends,  those  men  of  God  on  the  sea  did  not  know  that 
they  were  going  from  one  Evangelical  Alliance  to  anoth- 
er. But  the  one  here  was  nothing  compared  to  that  great 
one  beyond,  made  up  of  the  one  hundred  and  forty  and 
four  thousand,  "of  all  nations,  and  kindreds,  and  people, 
and  tono^ues."  It  was  two  o'clock  in  the  morninsr — two 
o'clock.  Sabbath  morning — when  those  men  went  up  to 
God — a  good  morning  In  which  to  go  to  heaven. 

The  Sabbath  is  a  good  day  in  which  to  live  or  to  die. 
Day  of  resurrection.  Day  of  jubilee.  Day  of  ascension 
to  their  soul.  Yet  how  strange  it  did  seem  that,  fifteen 
minutes  before,  those  men  down  in  the  cabins  heard  not 
the  trumpets  before  the  throne,  heard  not  the  rush  of 


70  WRECK  OF  THE  ''VILLE  DU  HAVRE:' 

the  chariots  of  salvation,  heard  not  the  hallelujah  of  the 
redeemed!  Oh,  wake  up,  ye  men  of  God,  down  in  the 
cabins,  within  fifteen  minutes  of  glory  I  The  gates  are 
opening,  the  hospitalities  of  heaven  are  preparing,  the 
kings  and  queens  of  God  are  coming  down  to  the  gate 
to  greet  you.  Wake  up!  men  of  God,  down  in  the 
cabins  of  the  Ville  du  Havre. 

Some  of  you  are  nearer  heaven  than  you  believe. 
Some  of  you  are  spending  your  last  Sabbath,  singing 
your  last  song,  giving  your  last  salutations.  There  is  a 
Loch  Earn  somewhere  that  is  making  toward  you,  and 
ere  you  are  aware  you  will  open  your  eyes  on  raptures 
eternal.  I  congratulate  you.  Your  friends  in  heaven 
have  been  saying  to  Jesus,  "  Why  not  let  our  friends 
come  up  from  earth  ?  Why  not  let  them  come  now,  O 
Jesus?  We  await  their  coming.  Let  them  come  now." 
And  Jesus,  to  please  them,  and  to  please  you,  will  say  to 
his  angels,  "Bring  them  home."  And  the  clusters  are 
already  on  the  table,  and  the  beakers  are  filled,  and  there 
is  an  excitement  as  of  expected  arrival,  and  you  will 
soon  be  gone. 

"  Be  with  me  Avhen  iny  feet 

Ave  slipping  over  the  brink, 
Tor  I  may  be  nearer  home, 
Nearer  now  than  I  think." 

Again,  I  learn  from  this  disaster  at  sea  that  the  world 
has  not  yet  been  persuaded  of  the  nonse^ue  of  prayer.  \ 
suppose  those  people  on  that  ship  had  all  read,  in  En- 
glish,  or  French,  or  in  Spanish,  or  in  German,  that  prayer 
is  unscientific  and  entirely  useless.  Had  they  been  per- 
suaded ?  Oh  no.  The  report  comes  to  us  that  they  all 
prayed;  and  there  was  one  woman  who  seemed  to  be 


WEECK  OF  THE  ''VILLE  DU  HAVRE:'  71 

the  chief  apostle  of  the  scene,  who  prayed  aloud  until,  it 
was  said,  her  words  sounded  like  inspiration.  I  do  not 
suppose  that  she  had  ever  been  ordained  by  conference 
or  by  presbytery ;  but  we  all  feel  that  that  woman  had  a 
right  to  pray  in  that  public  assemblage.  How  soothing 
her  words  must  have  been  in  that  awful  anguish  !  How 
strong  it  makes  one  feel  to  hear  a  woman  pray  !  A  wife 
praying  for  her  husband.  A  sister  praying  for  her  way- 
ward brother.  A  mother  praying  for  her  children.  A 
shipwrecked  woman  praying  for  two  hundred  drowning! 
Oh!  women  of  Christ,  can  you  pray  aloud?  Can  you 
pray  aloud  ?  You  may  never  have  to  officiate  as  priest- 
ess of  God,  as  that  woman  did,  on  the  deck  of  a  found- 
ering ship,  but  there  will  be  times  when  there  will  be 
dying  souls  who  will  want  from  you  not  so  much  silent 
prayer  as  audible  supplication.  Can  you  pray  aloud? 
Are  you  ashamed  to  have  your  children  hear  you  pray 
aloud?  I  have  heard  doctors  of  divinity  pray,  and  I  have 
heard  learned  bishops  pray,  but  against  all  the  prayers 
that  I  ever  heard,  I  put,  for  tenderness  and  power,  the  un- 
educated prayer  of  my  mother,  now  eleven  years  in  glory. 
She  did  not  have  to  go  to  an  English  hospital  to  have 
the  "  prayer  test."  She  had  it  in  her  own  home  when 
she  prayed  that  all  her  children  might  be  brought  to 
God;  and  they  all  were  brought  to  God,  five  of  them 
already  with  her  in  the  land  where  God  wipes  away  all 
tears  from  the  eyes. 

Had  Tyndall  been  there,  and  all  the  skeptics  and  phi- 
losophers of  the  world,  they  would  have  praj-ed  too; 
though  I  fear  not  with  the  calmness,  and  power,  and 
unction  of  that  woman  who  officiated  on  the  deck.  Have 
you  been  persuaded  of  the  uselessness  of  prayer?     I 


72  WRECK  OF  THE  ''VILLE  DU  HAVRE:' 

have  not.  Katber,  I  say,  Oh,  the  omnipotence  of  prayer! 
Had  you  not  better  try  it,  ye  who  have  sins  to  be  par- 
doned, ye  who  have  diseases  to  be  healed,  ye  who  have 
burdens  to  cany  ? 

*' Restraining  prayer,  we  cease  to  fi^ht; 
Prayer  makes  the  Christian's  armor  bright; 
And  Satan  trembles  when  he  sees 
The  weakest  saint  upon  his  knees. 

*'  Were  half  the  breath  that's  vainly  spent 
To  heaven  in  supplication  sent, 
Our  cheerful  song  would  oftener  be : 
'  Hear  what  the  Lord  has  done  for  me.' " 

I  learn,  also,  from  this  disaster,  the  importance  ofalioays 
being  ready  for  transition.  What  an  awful  thing  it  must 
have  been,  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  on  that  ship 
for  those  not  ready !  The  longest  time  spoken  of,  be- 
tween the  collision  and  the  plunge,  was  twelve  minutes. 
Alas!  for  the  impenitent  people  on  board  that  vessel! 
Only  twelve  minutes  to  do  the  whole  work  of  a  life- 
time, and  make  preparation  for  countless  ages  of  eterni- 
ty. Twelve  minutes!  Twelve  minutes!  I  think  they 
took  ten  of  them  in  hoping  that  they  could  get  off  into 
the  life -boats  or  on  the  Loch  Earn^  climbing  down  the 
mast.  I  think  that  ten  minutes  were  taken  in  that  way, 
hoping  to  get  off.  Then,  there  were  only  two  minutes 
left;  but  even  these  two  minutes  must  be  split  up ;  one 
minute  to  look  over  a  wasted  life,  and  the  other  minute 
to  look  forward  to  the  great  eternity.  What  a  short 
time  that  is,  you  saj^,  what  a  short  time  for  preparation ! 
But  do  you  not  realize  the  fact,  my  dear  brother,  that 
you  may  not  be  so  fortunate  as  that?  "Ob!"  you  say, 
"I  will  never  venture  on  the  sea."     Perhaps  you  may 


WRECK  OF  THE  ''VILLE  DU  HAVRE:''  73 

never  step  on  shipboard,  but  do  you  not  know  that  men 
go  out  of  life  without  twelve  minutes  warning,  without 
one  minute?  When  the  Avondale  explosion  took  place, 
how  long  did  those  men  have  time  to  prepare  for  eterni- 
ty ?  Not  half  a  second !  Witness  our  railway  disasters, 
how,  in  an  instant,  they  hurl  men  and  women  into  an 
unending  eternity.  "  In  such  a  day  and  in  such  an  hour 
as  ye  think  not,  the  Son  of  Man  cometh."  You  have 
had  friends  leave  the  world  —  did  they  go  at  the  time 
you  expected,  at  the  time  they  expected?  Is  it  not 
almost  always  a  surprise?  It  has  been  so  with  my 
friends.  None  of  them  went  away  at  the  time  I  thought 
they  would.  Though  their  sickness  may  have  been 
long,  though  they  may  have  been  sick  for  three  months, 
yet  death  was  a  surprise  at  the  last.  So  it  will  be  with 
you,  in  all  probability,  and  so  with  me.  "  In  such  an 
hour  as  ye  think  not,  the  Son  of  Man  cometh." 

I  can  not  realize  that  that  steamer  is  gone.  Did  you 
ever  see  her?  She  was  a  beautiful  vessel.  I  was  on 
her  deck  one  day  (she  was  lying  at  the  wharf)  examin- 
ing the  marvels  of  her  structure  and  the  beauty  of  her 
cabins.  She  was  the  most  beautiful  steamer  I  ever  saw; 
and  now  at  the  bottom  of  the  Atlantic  is  that  dead 
steamer.  The  furnaces  all  out.  The  pulsating  machin- 
ery still.  Passengers  still  in  their  berths,  sleeping  their 
last  sleep  !  No  hand  on  the  helm.  No  foot  pacing  the 
lookout.  Sea-monsters  floating  in  and  out  the  gashed 
side  of  the  steamer.  Along  the  gangway,  on  the  stairs, 
and  in  the  cabins,  the  bodies  of  men,  and  fair  maidens, 
and  beautiful  children  waiting  for  the  resurrection.  Oh! 
the  dead  steamer,  buried  in  coffin  of  coral,  under  gar- 
lands of  sea-weed,  in  the  cemetery  of  dead  ships,  beside 


74  WRECK  OF  THE  ''VILLE  DU  HAVRE:' 

the  Arctic^  and  the  Pacific^  and  the  Cambria,  and  the 
President,  and  the  Ciiy  of  Boston.  Toll  all  the  cathedral 
bells  of  Madrid,  and  Paris,  and  Geneva,  and  New  York. 
But  all  those  shipwrecked  ones  must  come  up.  "  The 
sea  shall  give  up  its  dead,"  and  all  the  cemeteries  on  the 
land  must  yield  their  trophies.  What  a  time  there  will 
be  in  Greenwood,  and  in  Laurel  Hill,  and  in  the  village 
grave-yard!  Oh,  what  a  time!  The  Bible  declares  it: 
"They  shall  come  forth,  some  to  the  resurrection  of  life, 
and  some  to  the  resurrection  of  damnation."  Day  of 
joy.  Day  of  sorrow.  Day  of  light.  Day  of  darkness. 
Day  of  victory.  Day  of  defeat.  Day  of  resurrection.  O 
God  !  prepare  me  for  that  day.  Are  we  ready?  There 
comes  a  voice  from  the  dead  steamer  that  overpowers  all 
other  voices  as  it  says:  "What  thy  hand  findeth  to  do, 
do  it  with  all  thy  might,  for  there  is  neither  wisdom, 
nor  device,  nor  knowledge  in  the  grave  whither  we  are 
all  hastening." 


GRACE  IN  CRYSTALS.  75 


GRACE  IN  CRYSTALS. 

"Salt  is  good." —  Luke  xiv.,  S-t. 

THE  Bible  is  a  dictionary  of  the  finest  similes.  It 
employs,  among  living  creatures,  storks  and  eagles, 
and  doves  and  unicorns,  and  sheep  and  cattle;  among 
trees,  sycamores  and  terebinths,  and  pomegranates,  and 
almonds,  and  apples ;  among  jewels,  pearls  and  amethysts, 
and  jacinths  and  chrysoprases.  Christ  uses  no  stale  il- 
lustrations. The  lilies  that  he  plucks  for  his  sermons 
are  dewy  fresh;  the  ravens  in  his  discourses  are  not 
stuffed  specimens  of  birds,  but  warm  wnth  life  from  wing; 
tip  to  wing-tip;  the  fish  he  points  to  are  not  dull  about 
the  gills,  as  though  long  captured,  but  a-squirm  in  the 
wet  net  just  brought  up  on  the  beach  of  Tiberias.  In 
my  text,  which  is  the  peroration  of  one  of  his  sermons, 
he  picks  up  a  crystal  and  holds  it  before  his  congregation 
as  an  illustration  of  divine  grace  in  the  heart,  when  he 
says,  what  we  all  know  by  experiment,  "Salt  is  good." 

I  shall  try  to  carry  out  the  Saviour's  idea  in  this  text, 
and  in  the  first  place  say  to  you  that  grace  is  like  salt  in 
its  beauty.  In  Galicia  there  are  mines  of  salt  with  exca- 
vations and  under-ground  passages  reaching,  I  am  tokl, 
two  hundred  and  eighty  miles.  Far  under-ground  there 
are  chapels  and  halls  of  reception,  the  columns,  the  altars, 
and  the  pulpits  of  salt.  When  the  king  and  the  princes 
come  to  visit  these  mines,  the  whole  place  is  illumined, 
and  the  glory  of  crystal  walls  and  crystal  ceilings  and 


76  OR  ACE  IN  CRYSTALS. 

crystal  floors  and  crystal  columns,  under  the  glare  of  the 
torches  and  the  lamps,  needs  words  of  crystal  to  describe 
it.  But  you  need  not  go  so  far  as  that  to  find  the  beauty 
of  salt.  We  live  in  a  land  which  produces  fourteen  mill- 
ions of  bushels  of  it  in  a  year,  and  you  can  take  the 
morning  rail  train,  and  in  a  few  hours  get  to  the  salt- 
mines and  salt-springs;  and  you  have  this  article  morn- 
ing, noon,  and  night,  on  your  table.  Salt  has  all  the 
beauty  of  the  snow-flake  and  water-foam,  with  durability 
added.  It  is  beautiful  to  the  naked  eye,  but  under  the 
glass  you  see  the  stars  and  the  diamonds  and  the  white 
tree-branches,  and  the  splinters  and  the  bridges  of  fire  as 
the  sun  glints  them.  There  is  more  architectural  skill 
in  one  of  these  crystals  of  salt  than  human  ingenuity  has 
ever  demonstrated  in  an  Alhambra  or  St.  Peter's.  It 
would  take  all  time,  with  an  infringement  upon  eternity, 
for  an  angel  of  God  to  tell  one-half  the  glories  in  a  salt- 
crystal.  So  with  the  grace  of  God :  it  is  perfectly  beau- 
tiful. I  have  seen  it  smooth  out  wrinkles  of  care  from 
the  brow ;  I  have  seen  it  make  an  aged  man  feel  almost 
young  again ;  I  have  seen  it  lift  the  stooping  shoulders, 
and  put  sparkle  into  the  dull  eye.  Solomon  discovered 
its  anatomical  qualities  when  he  said,  "It  is  marrow  to 
the  bones."  It  helps  to  digest  the  food,  and  to  purify 
the  blood,  and  to  calm  the  pulses,  and  quiet  the  spleen  ; 
and  instead  of  putting  a  man  in  a  philosophical  hospital 
to  be  experimented  upon  by  prayer,  it  keeps  him  so  well 
that  he  does  not  need  to  be  prayed  for  as  an  invalid.  I 
am  speaking  now  of  a  healthy  religion — not  of  that  mor- 
bid religion  that  sits  for  three  hours  on  a  grave-stone, 
reading  "Hervey's  Meditations  among  the  Tombs" — a 
religion  that  prospers  best  in  a  bad  state  of  the  liver!     I 


GJIACE  IN  CRYSTALS.  77 

speak  of  the  religion  that  Christ  preached.  I  suppose, 
when  that  religion  has  conquered  the  world,  that  disease 
will  be  banished;  and  that  a  man  a  hundred  3'ears  of 
age  will  come  in  from  business,  and  say,  "  I  feel  tired.  I 
think  it  must  be  time  for  me  to  go,"  and  without  one 
pliysical  pang,  heaven  will  have  him. 

But  the  chief  beauty  of  grace  is  in  the  soul.  It  takes 
that  which  was  hard  and  cold  and  repulsive,  and  makes 
it  all  over  again.  It  pours  upon  one's  nature  what  David 
calls  "  the  beauty  of  holiness."  It  extirpates  every  thing 
that  is  hateful  and  unclean.  If  jealousy  and  pride  and 
lust  and  worldliness  lurk  about,  they  are  chained,  and 
have  a  very  small  sweep.  Jesus  throws  upon  the  soul 
the  fragrance  of  a  summer  garden  as  he  comes  in,  say- 
ing, "I  am  the  rose  of  Sharon;"  and  he  submerges  it 
with  the  glory  of  a  spring  morning  as  he  says,  "  I  am  the 
light."  Oh,  how  much  that  grace  did  for  the  three  Johns! 
It  took  John  Bunyan,  the  foul-mouthed,  and  made  him 
John  Bunyan,  the  immortal  dreamer.  It  took  John  New- 
ton, the  infidel  sailor,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  hurricane 
made  him  cry  out,  "My  mother's  God,  have  mercy  upon 
me!"  It  took  John  Summerfield  from  a  life  of  sin,  and 
by  the  hand  of  a  Christian  edge-tool  maker  led  him  into 
the  pulpit  that  burns  still  with  the  light  of  that  Christian 
eloquence  which  charmed  thousands  to  the  Jesus  whom 
he  once  despised.  Ah !  you  may  search  all  the  earth 
over  for  any  thing  so  beautiful  or  beautifying  as  the 
grace  of  God.  Go  all  through  the  deep  mine  passages 
of  Wieliczka  and  amidst  the  under-ground  kingdoms  of 
salt  in  Hallstadt,  and  show  me  any  thing  so  exquisite, 
so  transcendentally  beautiful  as  this  grace  of  God  fash- 
ioned and  hung  in  eternal  crystals. 


78  GRACE  IN  CRYSTALS. 

Again,  grace  is  like  salt,  in  the  fact  that  it  is  a  necessity 
of  life.  Man  and  beast  perish  without  salt.  What  are 
those  paths  across  the  Western  prairies?  Why,  they 
were  made  there  by  deer  and  buffalo  going  to  and  coming 
away  from  the  salt  "licks."  Chemists  and  physicians, 
all  the  world  over,  tell  us  that  salt  is  a  necessity  of  life. 
And  so  with  the  grace  of  God  :  you  must  have  it  or  die. 
I  know  a  great  many  people  speak  of  it  as  a  mere  adorn- 
ment, a  sort  of  shoulder-strap  adorning  a  soldier,  or  a 
light,  frothing  dessert,  brought  in  after  the  greatest  part 
of  the  banquet  of  life  is  over,  or  a  medicine  to  be  taken 
after  calomel  and  mustard-plasters  have  failed  to  do  their 
work ;  but  ordinarily  a  mere  superfluity,  a  string  of  bells 
around  a  horse's  neck  while  he  draws  the  load,  and  in 
no  wise  helping  him  to  draw  it.  So  far  from  that,  I  de- 
clare the  grace  of  God  to  be  the  first  and  the  last  neces- 
sity. It  is  food  we  must  take,  or  starve  into  an  eternity 
of  famine.  It  is  clothing,  without  which  we  freeze  to  the 
mast  of  infinite  terror.  It  is  the  plank,  and  the  only 
plank,  on  which  we  can  float  shoreward.  It  is  the  lad- 
der, and  the  only  ladder,  on  which  we  can  climb  away 
fi'om  eternal  burnings.  And  that  young  woman  who 
sits  before  me  and  laughs  must  have  it  or  die.  It  is  a 
positive  necessity  for  the  soul.  You  can  tell  very  easi- 
ly what  the  effect  would  be  if  a  person  refused  to  take 
salt  into  the  body.  The  energies  would  fail,  the  lungs 
would  struggle  with  the  air,  slow  fevers  would  crawl 
through  the  brain,  the  heart  would  flutter,  and  the  life 
would  be  gone.  That  process  of  death  is  going  on  in 
many  a  one  because  they  take  not  the  salt  of  divine 
grace.  The  soul  becomes  weaker  and  weaker,  and  after 
a  while  the  pulses  of  life  will  stop  entirely.     Stretch  out 


GRACE  IN  CRYSTALS.  79 

that  soul  on  the  bier  of  eternal  death !  Coffin  it  in  a 
groan !  Strew  on  it  wreaths  of  nightshade !  Cover  it 
with  a  pall  of  eternal  blackness !  Set  no  burning  lamps 
at  the  head  and  at  the  feet,  but  rather  the  extinguished 
torches  of  the  silly  virgins  whose  lamps  went  out.  Let 
the  pall-bearers  come  in — Eemorse  and  Despair  and  An- 
guish and  Pain,  and  shoulder  it,  and  take  it  away  with 
solemn  and  awful  tramp,  remembering  that  they  carry 
the  corpse  of  a  soul.  "He  that  believeth  and  is  bap- 
tized shall  be  saved,  and  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be 
damned."  Salt,  a  necessity  for  the  life  of  the  body — the 
grace  of  God  a  necessity  for  the  life  of  the  soul. 

Again  I  remark,  that  grace  is  like  salt  in  abundance. 
God  has  strewn  salt  in  vast  profusion  all  over  the  con- 
tinents. Russia  seems  built  on  a  salt-cellar.  There  is 
one  region  of  that  country  that  turns  out  ninety  thou- 
sand tons  in  a  year.  England  and  Russia  and  Italy 
have  inexhaustible  resources  in  this  respect.  Norway 
and  Sweden,  white  with  snow  above,  white  with  salt  be- 
neath. Austria,  yielding  nine  hundred  thousand  tons 
annually.  ISTearlyall  the  nations  rich  in  it — rock-salt, 
spring-salt,  sea-salt.  Christ,  the  Creator  of  the  world, 
when  he  uttered  our  text,  knew  it  would  become  more 
and  more  significant  as  the  shafts  were  sunk,  and  the 
springs  were  bored,  and  the  pumps  were  worked,  and 
the  crystals  were  gathered.  So  the  grace  of' God  is 
abundant.  It  is  for  all  lands,  for  all  ages,  for  all  con- 
ditions. It  seems  to  nndergird  every  thing.  Pardon 
for  the  worst  sin,  comfort  for  the  sharpest  suffering, 
brightest  light  for  the  thickest  darkness.  Around  about 
the  salt  lakes  of  Saratoy  there  are  ten  thousand  men 
toiling  day  and  night,  and  yet  they  never  exhaust  the 


so  OR  ACE  IN  CRYSTALS. 

saline  treasures.     And  if  tbe  one  thousand  millions  of 

our  race  should  now  cry  out  to  God  for  his  mercy,  there 

would  be  enough  for  all;  for  those  flirthest  gone  in  sin, 

for  the  murderer  standing  on  the  drop  of  the  gallows, 

for  Eosenzweig,  and  Stokes,  and  Foster.     It  is  an  ocean 

of  mercy ;  and  if  Europe  and  Asia,  Africa,  North  and 

South  America,  and  all  the  islands  of  the  sea,  went  down 

in  It  to-day,  they  would  have  room  enough  to  wash  and 

come  up  clean.     Let  no  man  in  this  house  think  that 

his  case  is  too  tough  a  one  for  God  to  act  upon ;  though 

your  sin  may  be  deep  and  raging,  let  me  tell  you  th°at 

God's  grace  is  a  bridge  not  built  on  earthly  piers,  but 

suspended,  and  spanning  the  awful  chasm  of  your  guilt, 

one  end  resting  upon  the  rock  of  eternal  promises,  and 

the  other   on   the   foundations   of  heaven.     Demetrius 

wore  a  robe  so  incrusted  with  jewels  that  no  one  after 

him  ever  dared  to  wear  it;  but  our  King,  Jesus,  takes 

off  the  robe  of  his  righteousness,  a  robe  blood-dyed  and 

heaven-impearled,  and  reaches  it  out  to  the  worst  wretch 

in  all  the  earth,  and  says,  "Put  that  on!  wear  it  now! 

wear  it  forever." 

Again,  the  grace  of  God  is  like  salt  in  the  ivay  lue  come 
at  it.  The  salt  on  the  surface  is  almost  always  impure 
—that  which  incrusts  the  Eocky  Mountains  and  the 
South  American  pampas  and  in  India;  but  the  miners 
go  down  through  the  shafts  and  through  the  dark  laby- 
rinths, and  along  by  galleries  of  rock,  and,  with  torches 
and  pickaxes,  find  their  way  under  the  very  foundations 
of  the  earth,  to  where  the  salt  lies  that  makes  up  the 
nation's  wealth.  To  get  to  the  best  saline  springs  of  the 
earth  huge  machinery  goes  down,  boring  depth  below 
depth,  depth  below  depth,  until   from   under  the   very 


GRACE  m  CRYSTALS.  81 

roots  of  the  mountains,  the  saline  water  supplies  the 
aqueduct.  This  water  is  brought  to  the  surface,  and  is 
exposed  in  tanks  to  the  sun  for  evaporation,  or  it  is  put 
in  boilers  mightily  heated,  and  the  water  evaporates,  and 
the  salt  gathers  at  the  bottom  of  the  tank— the  work  is 
completed,  and  the  fortune  is  made.  So  with  the  grace 
of  God.  It  is  to  be  profoundly  sought  after.  With  all 
the  concentred  energies  of  body,  mind,  and  soul  we 
must  dig  for  it.  No  man  stumbles  accidentally  on  it. 
We  need  to  go  down  to  the  very  lowest  strata  of  ear- 
nestness and  faith  to  find  it.  Superficial  exploration 
will  not  turn  it  up.  We  must  strive,  and  implore,  and 
dig  until  we  strike  the  spring  foaming  with  living  waters. 
Then  the  work  of  evaporation  begins;  and  as  when  the 
saline  waters  are  exposed  to  the  sun,  the  vapors  float 
away,  leaving  nothing  but  the  pure  white  salt  at  the 
bottom  of  the  tank,  so,  when  the  Christian's  soul  is  ex- 
posed to  the  Sun  of  Kighteousness,  the  vapors  of  pride 
and  selfishness  and  worldliness  float  off,  and  there  is 
chiefly  left  beneath  pure  white  holiness  of  heart.  Then, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  salt,  the  furnace  is  added.  Blazing 
troubles,  stirred  by  smutted  stokers  of  darkness,  quicken 
the  evaporation  of  worldliness,  and  the  crystallization 
of  grace. 

Have  you  not  been  in  enough  trouble  to  have  that 
work  go  on?  I  was  reading  of  Aristotle,  who  said  there 
was  a  field  of  flowers  in  Sicily  so  sweet  that  once  a 
hound,  coming  on  the  track  of  game,  came  to  that  field, 
and  was  bewildered  by  the  perfumes,  and  so  lost  the 
track.  Oh !  that  our  souls  might  become  like  "  a  field 
which  the  Lord  hath  blessed,"  and  exhale  so  much  of  the 
sweetness  of  Christian  character  that  the  hounds  of  temp- 


82  GRACE  IN  CRYSTALS. 

tation,  coming  on  our  track,  might  lose  it,  and  go  howling 
back  with  disappointment! 

But,  I  remark  again,  that  the  grace  of  God  is  like  the 
salt  in  its  preservative  quality.  You  know  that  salt  absorbs 
the  moisture  of  articles  of  food  and  infuses  them  with 
brine,  which  preserves  them  for  a  long  while.  Salt  is  the 
great  antiputreflictive  of  the  world.  Experimenters,  in 
preserving  food,  have  tried  sugar,  and  smoke,  and  air- 
tight jars,  and  every  thing  else;  but  as  long  as  the  world 
stands  Christ's  words  will  be  suggestive,  and  men  will 
admit  that,  as  a  great  preservative,  "salt  is  good."  But 
for  the  grace  of  God,  the  earth  would  have  become  a 
stale  carcass  long  before  this.  That  grace  is  the  only 
preservative  of  laws,  and  constitutions,  and  literatures. 
Just  as  soon  as  a  Government  loses  this  salt  of  divine 
grace,  it  perishes.  The  philosophy  of  this  day,  so  far  as 
it  is  antagonistic  to  this  religion,  putrefies  and  stinks. 
The  great  want  of  our  schools  of  learning  and  our  insti- 
tutions of  science  to-day  is,  not  more  Leydenjars,  and 
galvanic  batteries,  and  spectroscopes,  and  philosophical 
apparatus,  but  more  of  that  grace  that  will  teach  our  men 
of  science  that  the  God  of  the  universe  is  the  God  of  the 
Bible.  How  strange  it  is  that  in  all  their  magnificent 
sweep  of  the  telescope  they  have  not  seen  the  morning- 
star  of  Jesus,  and  that  in  all  their  experiments  with  light 
and  heat  they  have  not  seen  the  light  and  felt  the  warmth 
of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness !  We  want  more  of  the  salt 
of  God's  grace  in  our  homes,  in  our  schools,  in  our  col- 
leges,in  oursocial  life,in  ourChristianity.  And  thatwhich 
has  it  will  live — that  which  has  it  not  will  die.  I  pro- 
claim the  tendency  of  every  thing  earthly  to  putrefaction 
and  death — the  religion  of  Christ  the  only  preservative. 


GRACE  IN  CRYSTALS.  83 

My  subject  is  one  of  great  congratulation  to  those  who 
have  within  their  souls  this  Gospel  antiseptic.  This  salt 
will  preserve  them  through  the  temptations  and  sorrows 
of  life,  and  through  the  ages  of  eternity.  I  do  not  mean 
to  say  that  you  will  have  a  smooth  time  because  you  are 
a  Christian.  On  the  contrary,  if  you  do  your  whole  duty, 
I  will  promise  you  a  rough  time.  You  march  through 
an  enemy's  country,  and  they  will  try  to  double  up  both 
flanks,  and  to  cut  you  off  from  your  source  of  supplies. 
The  war  you  wage  will  not  be  with  toy  arrows,  but 
sword  plunged  to  the  hilt,  and  spurring  on  your  steed 
over  heaps  of  the  slain.  But  I  think  that  God  omnipo- 
tent will  see  you  through.  I  think  he  will.  But  why 
do  I  talk  like  an  atheist,  when  I  ought  to  say  I  know  he 
will  ?  "  Kept  by  the  power  of  God  through  faith  unto 
complete  salvation." 

When  Governor  Geary,  of  Pennsylvania,  died  a  few 
days  ago,  I  lost  a  good  friend.  He  impressed  me  mighti- 
ly with  the  horrors  of  war.  In  the  eight  hours  that  it 
takes  to  come  from  Harrisburg  to  New  York,  he  recited 
to  me  the  scenes  through  which  he  had  passed  in  the  last 
war.  He  said  that  there  came  one  battle  upon  which 
every  thing  seemed  to  pivot.  Telegrams  from  Washing- 
ton said  that  the  life  of  the  nation  depended  upon  that 
struggle.  He  said  to  me:  "I  went  into  that  battle,  sir, 
with  my  son.  His  mother  and  I  thought  every  thing  of 
him.  You  know  how  a  father  will  feel  toward  his  son 
who  is  coming  up  manly,  and  brave,  and  good.  Well,  the 
battle  opened  and  concentred,  and  it  was  awful  !  Horses 
and  riders  bent  and  twisted  and  piled  up  together:  it  was 
awful,  sir!  We  quit  firing,  and  took  to  the  point  of  the 
bayonet.     Well,  sir,  I  didn't  feel  like  myself  that  day. 


84  GRACE  IN  CRYSTALS. 

I  had  prayed  to  God  for  strengtli  for  that  particular  bat° 
tie,  and  I  went  into  it  feeling  that  I  had  in  my  right  arm 
the  strength  often  giants,"  and  as  the  governor  brought 
his  arm  down  on  the  back  of  the  seat,  it  fairly  made  the 
car  tremble.  "Well,"  he  said,  "  the  battle  was  desperate, 
but  after  a  while  we  gained  a  little,  and  we  marched  on 
a  little.  I  turned  round  to  the  troops  and  shouted, 
'Come  on,  boys!'  and  I  stepped  across  a  dead  soldier, 
and  lo !  it  was  my  son.  I  saw  at  the  first  glance  he  was 
dead,  and  yet  I  did  not  dare  to  stop  a  minute,  for  the  crisis 
had  come  in  the  battle ;  so  I  just  got  down  on  my  knees, 
and  I  threw  my  arms  around  him,  and  I  gave  him  one 
good  kiss,  and  said,  '  Good-bye,  dear,'  and  sprang  up  and 
shouted,  'Come  on,  boys!'"  So  it  is  in  the  Christian 
conflict — it  is  a  fierce  fight.  Eternal  ages  seem  depend- 
ing on  the  strife.  Heaven  is  waiting  for  the  bulletins  to 
announce  the  tremendous  issue.  Hail  of  shot,  gash  of 
sabre,  fall  of  battle-axe,  groaning  on  every  side.  We 
can  not  stop  for  loss  or  bereavement,  or  any  thing  else. 
With  one  ardent  embrace  and  one  loving  kiss,  we  utter 
our  farewells,  and  then  cry,  "  Come  on,  boys!  There  are 
other  heights  to  be  captured,  there  are  other  foes  to  be 
conquered,  there  are  other  crowns  to  be  won." 

Yet,  as  one  of  the  Lord's  surgeons,  I  must  bind  up 
two  or  three  wounds.  Just  lift  them  now,  whatever  they 
be.  I  have  been  told  there  is  nothing  like  salt  to  stop 
the  bleeding  of  a  wound,  and  so  I  take  this  salt  of  Christ's 
Gospel  and  put  it  on  the  lacerated  soul.  It  smarts  a  lit- 
tle at  first;  but  see!  the  bleeding  stops,  and  lo!  the  flesh 
comes  again  as  the  flesh  of  a  little  child.     "  Salt  is  good !" 


GOSFEL  ARCHERY.  85 


GOSPEL  ARCHERY. 

*'  He  was  a  mighty  hunter  before  the  Lord." — Genesis  x.,  9. 

IN  our  day  hunting  is  a  sport ;  but  in  the  lands  and 
the  times  infested  of  wild  beasts,  it  was  a  matter  of 
life  or  death  with  the  people.  It  was  very  different  from 
going  out  on  a  sunshiny  afternoon  with  a  patent  breech- 
loader, to  shoot  reed-birds  on  the  flats,  when  Pollux  and 
Achilles  and  Diomedes  went  out  to  clear  the  land  of 
lions  and  tigers  and  bears.  My  text  sets  forth  Nimrod 
as  a  hero,  when  it  presents  him  with  broad  shoulders  and 
shaggy  apparel  and  sun-browned  face,  and  arm  bunched 
with  muscle — "a  mighty  hunter  before  the  Lord."  I 
think  he  used  the  bow  and  the  arrows  with  great  suc- 
cess, practicing  archery. 

I  have  thought  if  it  is  such  a  grand  thing  and  such  a 
brave  thing  to  clear  wild  beasts  out  of  a  country,  if  it  is 
not  a  better  and  braver  thing  to  hunt  down  and  destroy 
those  great  evils  of  society  that  are  stalking  the  land 
with  fierce  eye,  and  bloody  paw,  and  sharp  tusk,  and 
quick  spring.  I  have  wondered  if  there  is  not  such  a 
thing  as  Gospel  archery,  by  which  those  who  have  been 
flying  from  the  truth  may  be  captured  for  God  and 
heaven.  The  Lord  Jesus  in  his  sermon  used  the  art  of 
angling  for  an  illustration,  when  he  said,  "I  will  make 
you  fishers  of  men."  And  so  I  think  I  have  authority 
for  using  hunting  as  an  illustration  of  Gospel  truth ;  and 
I  pray  God  that  there  may  be  m.any  a  man  in  this  con- 


86  GOSPEL  ARCHERY. 

gregation  who  shall  begin  to  study  Gospel  archery,  of 
whora  it  may,  after  a  while,  be  said,  "He  was  a  mighty 
hunter  before  the  Lord." 

How  much  awkward  Christian  work  there  is  done  in 
the  world  !  How  many  good  people  there  are  who  drive 
souls  away  from  Christ  instead  of  bringing  them  to  him ! 
All  their  fingers  are  thumbs — religious  blunderers  who 
upset  more  than  they  right.  Their  gun  has  a  crooked 
barrel,  and  kicks  as  it  goes  off.  They  are  like  a  clumsy 
comrade  who  goes  along  with  skillful  hunters;  at  the 
very  moment  he  ought  to  be  most  quiet,  he  is  crackling 
an  alder,  or  falling  over  a  log  and  frightening  away  the 
game.  How  few  Christian  people  have  ever  learned  the 
lesson  of  which  I  read  at  the  beginning  of  this  service, 
how  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  at  the  well  went  fi-om 
talking  about  a  cup  of  water  to  the  most  practical  re- 
ligious truths,  which  won  the  woman's  soul  for  God ! 
Jesus  in  the  wilderness  was  breaking  bread  to  the  peo- 
ple. I  think  it  w^as  very  good  bread;  it  was  very  light 
bread,  and  the  yeast  had  done  its  work  thoroughly. 
Christ,  after  he  had  broken  the  bread,  said  to  the  peo- 
ple, "  Bew^are  of  the  yeast,  or  of  the  leaven  of  the  Phari- 
sees." So  natural  a  transition  it  w^as,  and  how  easily 
they  all  understood  him !  Bat  how  few  Christian  peo- 
ple there  are  who  understand  how  to  fasten  the  truths 
of  God  and  relii^ion  to  the  souls  of  men!     Truman  Os- 

a 

borne,  one  of  the  evangelists  who  went  through  this 
country  some  j^ears  ago,  had  a  wonderful  art  in  the 
right  direction.  He  came  to  ni}^  father's  house  one  day, 
and  while  we  were  all  seated  in  the  room,  he  said,  "Mr. 
Talmage,  are  all  your  children  Christians?"  Father  said, 
"  Yes,  all  but  De  Witt."     Then  Truman  Osborne  looked 


GOSPEL  ARCHERY.  -  87 

down  into  the  fire-place,  and  began  to  tell  a  story  of  a 
storm  that  came  on  the  mountains,  and  all  the  sheep 
were  in  the  fold  ;  but  there  was  one  lamb  outside  that 
perished  in  the  storm.  Had  he  looked  me  m  the  eve 
I  should  have  been  angered  when  he  told  that  story ; 
but  he  looked  into  the  fire-place,  and  it  was  so  pathetic- 
ally and  beautifully  done  that  I  never  found  any  peace 
until  I  was  sure  I  was  inside  the  fold,  where  the  other, 
sheep  are. 

The  archers  of  olden  time-st»di€d--their  art.  They 
"were  very  precise  in  the  matter.  The  old  books  gave 
especial  directions  as  to  how  an  archer  should  go,  and  as 
to  what  an  archer  should  do.  He  must  stand  erect  and 
firm,  his  left  foot  a  little  in  advance  of  the  right  foot. 
With  his  left  hand  he  must  take  hold  of  the  bow  in  the 
middle,  and  then  with  the  three  fingers  and  the  thumb 
of  his  right  hand  he  should  lay  hold  the  arrow  and  affix 
it  to  the  string — so  precise  was  the  direction  given.  But 
iiow  clumsy  we  are  about  religious  work!  How  little 
skill  and  care  we  exercise !  How  often  our  arrows  miss 
the  mark !  Oh  !  that  there  were  lay  colleges  established 
in  all  the  towns  and  cities  of  our  land,  where  men  might 
learn  the  art  of  doing  good — studying  spiritual  archery, 
and  known  as  "  mighty  hunters  before  the  Lord !" 

In  the  first  place,  if  you  w^ant  to  be  effectual  in  doing 
good,  you  must  be  very  sure  of  your  weapon.  There  was 
something  very  fascinating  about  the  archery  of  olden 
times.  Perhaps  you  do  not  know  what  they  could  do 
with  the  bow  and  arrow.  Why,  the  chief  battles  fought 
by  the  English  Plantagenets  were  with  the  long-bow. 
They  would  take  the  arrow  of  polished  wood,  and  feath- 
er it  with  the  plume  of  a  bird,  and  then  it  would  fly 

4* 


88  QOSPEL  ARCHERY. 

from  the  bowstring  of  plaited  silk.  The  bloody  fields 
of  Agincourt,  and  Solway  Moss,  and  Neville's  Cross 
heard  the  loud  thrum  of  the  archer's  bowstring.  Now, 
my  Christian  friends,  we  have  a  mightier  weapon  than 
that.  It  is  the  arrow  of  the  Gospel ;  it  is  a  sharp  arrow ; 
it  is  a  straight  arrow ;  it  is  feathered  from  the  wing  of 
the  dove  of  God's  Spirit;  it  flies  from  a  bow  made  out 
of  the  wood  of  the  cross.  As  far  as  I  can  estimate  or 
calculate,  it  has  brought  down  three  hundred  millions  of 
souls.  Paul  knew  how  to  bring  the  notch  of  that  arrow 
on  to  the  bowstring,  and  its  whir  was  heard  through  the 
Corinthian  theatres,  and  through  the  court-room,  until 
the  knees  of  Felix  knocked  together.  It  was  that  arrow 
that  stuck  in  Luther's  heart  when  he  cried  out,  "  Oh,  my 
sins!  Oh,  my  sins!"  If  it  strike  a  man  in  the  head,  it 
kills  his  skepticism;  if  it  strike  him  in  the  heel,  it  will 
turn  his  step ;  if  it  strike  him  in  the  heart,  he  throws  up 
his  hands,  as  did  one  of  old  when  wounded  in  the  battle, 
crying,  "O  Galilean  !  thou  hnst  conquered  !" 

In  the  armory  of  the  Earl  of  Pembroke,  there  are  old 
corselets  which  show  that  the  arrow  of  the  English  used 
to  go  through  the  breastplate,  through  the  body  of  the 
warrior,  and  out  through  the  backplate.  What  a  sym- 
bol of  that  Gospel  which  is  sharper  than  a  two-edged 
sword,  piercing  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  bodj^, 
and  of  the  joints  and  marrow!  Would  to  God  we  had 
more  faith  in  that  Gospel !  The  humblest  man  in  this 
house,  if  he  had  enough  faith  in  it,  could  bring  a  hun- 
dred souls  to  Jesus — perhaps  five  hundred.  Just  in  pro- 
portion as  this  age  seems  to  believe  less  and  less  in  it,  I 
believe  more  and  more  in  it.  What  are  men  about  that 
they  will  not  accept  their  own  deliverance?     There  is 


GOSPEL  ARCHERY.  89 

nothing  proposed  bj  men  that  can  do  any  thing  like  this 
Gospel.  The  religion  of  Ealph  Waldo  Emerson  is  the 
philosophy  of  icicles;  the  religion  of  Theodore  Parker 
was  a  sirocco  of  the  desert,  covering  up  the  soul  with  dry 
sand;  the  religion  of  Kenan  is  the  romance  of  believing 
nothing;  the  religion  of  Thomas  Carlyle  is  only  a  con- 
densed London  fog;  the  religion  of  the  Huxleys  and  the 
Spencers  is  merely  a  pedestal  on  which  human  philoso- 
phy sits  shivering  in  the  night  of  the  soul,  looking  up  to 
the  stars,  offering  no  help  to  the  nations  that  crouch  and 
groan  at  the  base.  Tell  me  where  there  is  one  man  who 
has  rejected  that  Gospel  for  another,  who  is  thoroughly 
satisfied,  and  helped,  and  contented  in  his  skepticism,  and 
I  will  take  the  car  to-morrow  and  ride  five  hundred  miles 
to  see  him.  The  full  power  of  the  Gospel  has  not  yet 
been  touched.  As  a  sportsman  throws  up  his  hand  and 
catches  the  ball  flying  through  the  air,  just  so  easily  will 
this  Gospel  after  a  while  catch  this  round  w^orld  flying 
from  its  orbit,  and  bring  it  back  to  the  heart  of  Christ. 
Give  it  full  swing,  and  it  will  pardon  every  sin,  heal  ev- 
ery wound,  cure  every  trouble,  emancipate  every  slave, 
and  ransom  every  nation.  Ye  Christian  men  and  wom- 
en who  go  out  this  afternoon  to  do  Christian  work,  as 
you  go  into  the  Sunday-schools  and  the  lay-preaching 
stations,  and  the  penitentiaries,  and  the  asylums,  I  want 
you  to  feel  that  you  bear  in  your  hand  a  weapon,  com- 
pared with  which  the  lightning  has  no  speed,  and  ava- 
lanches have  no  heft,  and  the  thunder-bolts  of  heaven 
have  no  power;  it  is  the  arrow  of  the  omnipotent  Gos- 
pel. Take  careful  aim!  Pull  the  arrow  clear  back  un- 
til the  head  strikes  the  bow !  Then  let  it  fly.  And  may 
the  slain  of  the  Lord  be  many  I 


90  GOSPEL  AliCHEliY. 

Again,  if  you  want  to  be  skillful  in  spiritual  archery, 
you  must  bunt  in  unfrequented  and  secluded  places.  Why 
does  the  hunter  go  three --or  four  di^yS~^T^4ke,P^ 
vania  forests  or  over  Kaquette  Lake  into  the  wilds  of 
the  Adirondacks?  It  is  the  only  way  to  do.  The  deer 
are  shy,  and  one  "bang"  of  the  gun  clears  the  forest. 
From  the  California  stage  you  see,  as  you  go  over  the 
plains,  here  and  there,  a  coj^ote  trotting  along,  almost 
within  range  of  the  gun — sometimes  quite  within  range 
of  it.  No  one  cares  for  that ;  it  is  worthless.  The  good 
game  is  hidden  and  secluded.  Every  hunter  knows 
that.  So  many  of  the  souls  that  will  be  of  most  worth 
for  Christ  and  of  most  value  to  the  Church  are  secluded. 
They  do  not  come  in  your  way.  You  will  have  to  go 
where  they  are.  Yonder  they  are  down  in  that  cellar; 
yonder  they  are  np  in  that  garret  —  far  away  from 
the  door  of  any  church ;  the  Gospel  arrow  has  not  been 
pointed  at  them.  The  tract  distributer  and  the  city 
missionary  sometimes  just  catch  a  glimpse  of  them,  as  a 
hunter  through  the  trees  gets  a  momentary- sight  of  a 
partridge  or  roebuck.  The  trouble  is,  we  are  waiting 
for  the  game  to  come  to  us.  We  are  not  good  hunt- 
ers. We  are  standing  on  Montague  Street  and  Scher- 
merhorn  Street,  expecting  that  the  timid  antelope  will 
come  up  and  eat  out  of  our  hand.  We  are  expecting 
that  the  prairie-fowl  will  light  on  our  church -steeple. 
It  is  not  their  habit.  If  the  Church  should  wait  ten 
millions  of  years  for  the  world  to  come  in  and  be  saved, 
it  will  wait  in  vain.  The  world  will  not  come.  What 
the  Church  wants  now  is  to  lift  its  feet  from  damask 
ottomans,  and  put  them  in  the  stirrups.  The  Church 
wants  not  so  much  cushions  as  it  wants  saddle-bags  and 


GOSPEL  ARCHERY.  91 

arrows.  We  have  got  to  put  aside  the  gown  and  tne 
kid-gloves,  and  put  on  the  hunting -shirt.  We  want  a 
pulpit  on  wheels.  We  have  been  fishing  so  long  in  the 
brooks  that  run  under  the  shadow  of  the  Church  that 
the  fish  know  us,  and  they  avoid  the  hook,  and  escape 
as  soon  as  we  come  to  the  bank,  while  yonder  is  Upper 
Saranac  and  Big  Tupper's  Lake,  where  the  first  swing  of 
the  Gospel  net  would  break  it  for  the  multitude  of  the 
fishes.  There  is  outside  work  to  be  done.  What  is  it 
that  I  see  in  the  backwoods?  It  is  a  tent.  The  hunt- 
ers have  made  a  clearing,  and  camped  out.  What  do 
they  care  if  they  have  wet  feet,  or  if  they  have  nothing 
but  a  pine  branch  for  a  pillow,  or  for  the  north-east 
storm?  If  a  moose  in  the  darkness  steps  into  the  lake 
to  drink,  they  hear  it  right  away.  If  a  loon  cry  in  the 
midnight,  they  hear  it.  So,  in  the  service  of  God,  we 
have  exposed  work.  We  have  got  to  camp  out  and 
rough  it.  We  are  putting  all  our  care  on  the  forty 
thousand  people  in  Brooklj-n  who,  they  say,  come  to 
church.  What  are  we  doing  for  the  three  hundred  and-'' 
sixty  thousand  that  do  not  come?  Have  they  no  souls?  \ 
Are  they  sinless,  that  they  need  no  pardon?  Are  there 
no  dead  in  their  houses,  that  they  need  no  comfort?  Are 
they  cut  off  from  God,  to  go  into  eternit}^ — no  wing  to 
bear  them,  no  light  to  cheer  them,  no  welcome  to  greet 
them  ?  I  hear  to-day,  surging  up  from  that  lower  depth 
of  Brooklyn,  a  groan  that  comes  through  our  Christian 
assemblages  and  through  our  beautiful  churches;  and  it 
blots  out  all  this  scene  from  my  eyes  to-day,  as  by  the 
mists  of  a  great  Niagara,  for  the  dash  and  the  plunge  of 
these  great  torrents  of  life  dropping  down  into  the  fath- 
omless and  thundering  abysm  of  suffering  and  woe.     I 


92  GOSPEL  ARCHERY. 

sometimes  think  that  just  as  God  blotted  out  the  church- 
es of  Thyatira  and  Corinth  andLaodicea  because  of  their 
sloth  and  stolidity,  he  will  blot  out  American  and  En- 
glish Christianity,  and  raise  on  the  ruins  a  stalwart, 
wide-awake  missionary  church  that  can  take  the  full 
meaning  of  that  command,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world, 
and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature.  He  that  be- 
lieveth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved ;  but  he  that  be- 
lieveth  not  shall  be  damned" — a  command,  you  see, 
punctuated  with  a  throne  of  heaven  and  a  dungeon  of 
hell. 

I  remark,  further,  if  you  want  to  succeed  in  spiritual 
archery  you_must  have  comage.  If  the  hunter  stands 
with  trembling  hanJ~oF shoulder  that  flinches  with  fear, 
instead  of  his  taking  the  catamount,  the  catamount  takes 
him.  What  would  become  of  the  Greenlander  if,  when 
out  hunting  for  the  bear,  he  should  stand  shivering  with 
terror  on  an  iceberg?  What  would  have  become  of 
Du  Chaillu  and  Livingstone  in  the  African  thicket,  with 
a  faint  heart  and  a  weak  knee?  When  a  panther  comes 
within  twenty  paces  of  you,  and  it  has  its  eye  on  you, 
and  it  has  squatted  for  the  fearful  spring,  "Steady  there!" 
Courage,  oh,  ye  spiritual  archers  1  There  are  great  mon- 
sters of  iniquity  prowling  all  around  about  the  commu- 
nity. Shall  we  not  in  the  strength  of  God  go  forth  and 
combat  them  ?  We  not  only  need  more  heart,  but  more 
backbone.  What  is  the  Church  of  God  that  it  should 
fear  to  look  in  the  eye  any  transgression  ?  There  is  the 
Bengal  tiger  of  drunkenness  that  prowls  around;  and 
'.instead  of  attacking  it,  how  many  of  us  hide  under  the 
*€hurch-pew  or  the  communion-table !  There  is  so  much 
invested  in  it  we  are  afraid  to  assault  it ;  millions  of  dol- 


GOSrEL  ARCHERY.  93 

]ars  in  barrels,  in  vats,  in  spigots,  in  corkscrews,  in  gin- 
palaces  with  marble  floors  and  Italian -top  tables,  and 
chased  ice -coolers,  and  in  the  strychnine,  and  the  log- 
wood, and  the  tartaric  acid,  and  the  mix  vomica^  that 
go  to  make  up  our  "pure"  American  drinks.  I  looked 
with  wondering  eyes  on  the  "  Heidelberg  tun."  It  is  the 
great  liquor- vat  of  Germany,  which  is  said  to  hold  eight 
hundred  hogsheads  of  wine,  and  only  three  times  in  a 
hundred  years  it  has  been  filled.  But,  as  I  stood  and 
looked  at  it,  I  said  to  myself,  "  That  is  nothing — eight 
hundred  hogsheads.  Why,  our  American  vat  holds  five 
million  two  hundred  thousand  barrels  of  strong  drinks, 
and  we  keep  two  hundred  thousand  men  with  nothing 
to  do  but  to  see  that  it  is  filled."  Oh !  to  attack  this 
great  monster  of  Intemperance,  and  the  kindred  monsters 
of  fraud  and  uncleanness,  requires  you  to  rally  all  your 
Christian  courage.  Through  the  press,  through  the  pul- 
pit, through  the  platform  you  must  assault  it.  Would 
to  God  that  all  our  American  Christians  would  band  to- 
gether, not  for  crack-brained  fanaticism,  but  for  holy 
Christian  reform!  I  think  it  was  in  1793  that  there 
went  out  from  Luck  now,  India,  under  the  sovereign,  the 
greatest  hunting-party  that  was  ever  projected.  There 
were  ten  thousand  armed  men  in  that  hunting-party. 
There  were  camels,  and  horses,  and  elephants.  On  some 
princes  rode,  and  royal  ladies  under  exquisite  housings, 
and  five  hundred  coolies  waited  upon  the  train,  and  the 
desolate  places  of  India  were  invaded  by  this  excursion, 
and  the  rhinoceros,  and  deer,  and  elephant  fell  under  the 
stroke  of  the  sabre  and  bullet.  After  a  while  the  party 
brought  back  trophies  worth  fifty  thousand  rupees,  hav- 
ing left  the  wilderness  of  India  ghastly  with  the  slain 


94  GOSPEL  ARCHERY. 

bodies  of  wild  beasts.  Would  to  God  that,  instead  of 
here  and  there  a  straggler  going  out  to  fight  these  great 
monsters  of  iniquity  in  our  country,  the  millions  of  mem- 
bership of  our  churches  would  band  together  and  hew 
in  twain  these  great  crimes  that  make  the  land  frightful 
with  their  roar,  and  are  fattening  upon  the  bodies  and 
souls  of  immortal  men  !  Who  is  ready  for  such  a  party 
as  that?     Who  will  be  a  mighty  hunter  for  the  Lord? 

I  remark,  again,  if  you  want  to  be  successful  in  spirit- 
ual archery,  you  need  not  only  to  bring  (^oi£?2jthe_gam:e, 
but  brin^jt^r— I  think  one  of  the  niostl)eautifal  pic- 
tures'of  Thorwaldsen  is  his  "Autumn."  It  represents 
a  sportsman  coming  home,  and  standing  under  a  grape- 
vine. He  has  a  staff  over  his  shoulder,  and  on  the  other 
end  of  that  staff  are  hung  a  rabbit  and  a  brace  of  birds. 
Ev^ery  hunter  brings  home  the  game.  No  one  would 
think  of  bringing  down  a  reindeer  or  whipping  up  a 
stream,  for  trout,  and  letting  them  lie  in  the  woods.  At 
even -tide  the  camp  is  adorned  with  the  treasures  of  the 
forest — beak,  and  fin,  and  antler. 

If  you  go  out  to  hunt  for  immortal  souls,  not  only 
bring  them  down  under  the  arrow  of  the  Gospel,  but 
bring  them  into  the  Church  of  God,  the  grand  home  and 
encampment  we  have  pitched  this  side  the  skies.  Fetch 
them  in  ;  do  not  let  them  lie  out  in  the  open  field.  They 
need  our  prayers  and  sympathies  and  help.  That  is  the 
meaning  of  the  Church  of  God — help.  Oh,  ye  hunters 
for  the  Lord !  not  only  bring  down  the  game,  but  bring 
it  in. 

If  Mithridates  liked  hunting  so  well  that  for  seven 
years  he  never  went  indoors,  what  enthusiasm  ought 
we  to  have  who  are   hunting  for  immortal  souls!     If 


GOSPEL  ARCHERY.  95 

Domitian  practiced  archery  until  he  could  stand  a  boy 
down  in  the  Koman  amphitheatre  with  a  hand  out,  the 
fingers  apart  like  that,  and  then  the  king  could  shoot  an 
arrow  between  the  fingers  without  wounding  them,  to 
what  drill  and  what  practice  ought  not  we  to  subject  our- 
selves in  order  to  become  spiritual  archers  and  "mighty 
hunters  before  the  Lord!"  But  let  me  say  you  will 
never  work  any  better  than  you  pray.  The  old  archers 
took  the  bow,  put  one  end  of  it  down  beside  the  foot, 
elevated  the  other  end,  and  it  was  the  rule  that  the  bow 
should  be  just  the  size  of  the  archer;  if  it  were  just  his 
size,  then  he  would  go  into  the  battle  with  confidence. 
Let  me  say  that  your  power  to  project  good  in  the  world 
will  correspond  exactly  to  your  own  spiritual  stature. 
In  other  words,  the  first  thing,  in  preparation  for  Chris- 
tian work,  is  personal  consecration. 

"  Oh  for  a  closer  walk  with  God, 
A  calm  and  heavenly  frame, 
A  light  to  shine  upon  the  road 
That  leads  me  to  the  Lamb." 

I  am  sure  that  there  are  some  here  who  at  some  time 
have  been  hit  by  the  Gospel  arrow.  You  felt  the  wound 
of  that  conviction,  and  you  plunged  into  the  world  deeper; 
just  as  the  stag,  w^hen  the  hounds  are  after  it,  plunges 
into  Scroon  Lake,  expecting  in  that  way  to  escape.  Jesus 
Christ  is  on  your  track  to-day,  oh,  impenitent  man !  not 
in  wrath,  but  in  mercy.  Oh,  ye  chased  and  panting 
souls!  here  is  the  stream  of  God's  mercy  and  salvation, 
where  you  may  cool  your  thirst !  Stop  that  chase  of  sin 
to-day.  By  the  red  fountain  that  leaped  from  the  heart 
of  my  Lord,  I  bid  you  stop !  There  is  mercy  for  you — 
mercy  that  pardons,  mercy  that  heals,  everlasting  mercy. 


96  GOSPEL   ARCHERY. 

Is  there  in  all  this  house  any  one  who  can  refuse  the 
offer  that  comes  from  the  heart  of  the  dying  Son  of  God? 
Why,  do  you  know  that  there  are,  in  the  banished  world, 
souls  that,  for  that  offer  you  get  to-day,  would  fling  the 
crown  of  the  universe  at  your  feet,  if  they  possessed  it? 
But  they  went  out  on  the  mountains,  the  storm  took 
them,  and  they  died. 

There  is  in  a  forest  in  Germany  a  place  they  call  the 
"  deer-leap  "—two  crags,  about  eighteen  yards  apart,  be- 
tween them  a  fearful  chasm.  This  is  called  the  "  deer- 
leap,"  because  once  a  hunter  was  on  the  track  of  a  deer; 
it  came  to  one  of  these  crags ;  there  was  no  escape  for 
it  from  the  pursuit  of  the  hunter,  and  in  utter  despair  it 
gathered  itself  up,  and  in  the  death-agony  attempted  to 
jump  across.  Of  course  it  fell,  and  was  dashed  on  the 
rocks  flir  beneath.  Here  is  a  path  to  heaven.  It  is  plain  ; 
it  is  safe.  Jesus  marks  it  out  for  every  man  to  walk  in. 
But  here  is  a  man  who  says,  "  I  won't  walk  in  that  path  ; 
I  will  take  my  own  way."  He  comes  on  up  until  he 
confronts  the  chasm  that  divides  his  soul  from  heaven. 
Now  his  last  hour  has  come,  and  he  resolves  that  he 
will  leap  that  chasm,  from  the  heights  of  earth  to  the 
heights  of  heaven.  Stand  back  now,  and  give  him  full 
swing,  for  no  soul  ever  did  that  successfully.  Let  him 
try.  Jump!  jump!  He  misses  the  mark,  and  he  goes 
down,  depth  below  depth,  "destroyed  without  remedy." 
Men !  angels !  devils !  what  shall  we  call  that  place  of 
awful  catastrophe?  Let  it  be  known  forever  as  the 
sinner's  death-leap. 


THE  BEST  WE  MA  VE.  97 


THE  BEST  WE  HAYE  * 

"And  being  in  Bethany,  in  the  house  of  Simon  the  leper,  as  he  sat  at 
meat,  there  came  a  woman  having  an  alabaster  box  of  ointment  of  spike- 
nard very  precious ;  and  she  brake  the  box,  and  poured  it  on  his  head. 
Verily  I  say  unto  you,  Wheresoever  this  Gospel  shall  be  preached  through- 
out the  whole  world,  this  also  that  she  hath  done  shall  be  spoken  of  for 
a  memorial  of  her."— Mari-  xiv.,  3,  9. 

IN  a  village  where  I  once  lived,  on  a  cold  night  there 
was  a  cry  of  "fire."  House  after  house  was  con- 
sumed, but  there  was  in  the  village  a  large,  hospitable 
dwelling.  As  soon  as  people  were  burned  out  they 
came  to  this  common  centre.  The  good  man  of  the 
house  stood  at  the  door,  and  said,  "Come  in,"  and  the 
little  children,  as  they  were  brought  to  the  door,  some 
of  them  wrapped  in  blankets  and  shawls  very  hastily, 
were  taken  up  to  bed,  and  as  the  old  people  that  came 
in  from  their  consumed  dwellings  were  seated  around 
the  fire,  the  good  man  of  the  house  told  them  that  all 
would  be  well.  This  is  a  very  cold  day  to  be  burned 
out  of  house  and  home,  but  we  come  into  this  hospitable 
home  to-night,  and  gather  around  this  great  warm  fire 
of  Christian  kindness  and  love.  And  it  is  good  to  be 
here.  The  Lord  built  the  Tabernacle  and  the  Lord  let 
it  burn  down  ;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord  !  We  do 
not  feel  like  sitting  down  in  discouragement,  although 
the  place  was  very  dear  to  ns,  our  hearts  often  there 

*  Sermon  preached  at  Plymouth  Church  on  the  evening  of  the  day  ia 
which  the  Brooklyn  Tabernacle  was  burned. 


98  THE  BEST  WE  HAVE. 

having  been  comforted;  and  many  and  many  a  time  did 
Jesus  appear,  his  face  radiant  as  the  sun.  To-day,  when 
the  Christian  sympathy  came  in  from  Plymouth  Church 
and  ten  other  churches  of  the  city,  all  offering  their 
houses  of  worship  to  us,  I  must  say  that  it  became  very 
damp  weather  about  the  eyelashes. 

If  any  body  tells  you  that  there  is  no  kindness  be- 
tween churches — if  any  body  tells  you  that  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  Chi'istian  brotherhood,  tell  him  he  lies! 
I  find  amidst  the  sorrows  of  the  day  one  cause  for  ex- 
treme congratulation.  I  thank  God  that  the  fire  took 
place  w^hen  it  did,  and  not  an  hour  later.  Had  it  come 
an  hour  later,  when  we  were  assembled  for  worship, 
many  who  are  here  to-night —  (Mr.  Talmnge  hesitated, 
and  was  visibly  much  affected.  In  a  moment  he  con- 
tinued.)    I  will  not  finish  that. 

I  shall  say  to  you  what  I  would  have  said  this  morn- 
ing if  my  pulpit  had  not  been  burned  up,  more  especial- 
ly addressing  my  own  people,  who,  through  the  courtesy 
of  this  church,  are  here  to-night. 

A  man  pale  and  wasted  with  recent  sickness  is  en- 
tertaiuino-  the  doctor  who  cured  him.  Simon  the  host, 
Christ  the  guest.  It  is  unpleasant  to  be  interrupted  at 
meals,  and  considerable  indignation  is  aroused  by  the 
fact  that  a  woman  presses  into  the  dining-hall  with  oint- 
ment made  of  spikes  of  nard,  and  pours  this  ointment  on 
the  head  of  Christ.  It  was  an  ointment  so  costly  and  so 
rare  that  the  bestowment  of  it  implied  great  admiration 
and  affection.  "Put  her  out!"  cried  the  people;  "what 
an  outrageous  interruption  this  is!  why  is  this  woman 
allowed  to  come  in  here?"  Besides  that,  it  i&  such  a  lack 
of  economy.     Here  she  takes  a  stone-jar  made  from  the 


THE  BEST  WE  HAVE.  99 

mountains  near  the  city  of  Alabastron — a  stone-jar  filled 
\\'ith  perfume  so  costly  that  it  might  have  purchased 
bread  for  the  poor,  and  pours  it  on  the  head  of  one  who 
cares  nothing  for  the  fragrance.  "Stop,"  said  Jesus, 
"  don't  put  her  out  1"  He  who  had  mingled  the  cup  of 
all  the  flowers  appreciated  the  breath  of  the  nard,  and 
he  who  had  made  the  stone-jars  in  the  factories  of  Ala- 
bastron knew  the  worth  of  that  box.  Jesus  says :  "  The 
woman  is  right.  She  has  done  her  best,  and  the  per- 
fume which  fills  this  banqueting-house  shall  yet  fill  all 
the  earth  and  all  ages." 

I  notice  in  this  subject,  in  the  first  place,  a  very  pleas- 
ant way  of  getting  ourselves  remenihered.  Jesus  says  that 
this  woman's  action  of  kindness  and  love  shall  be  a  me- 
morial of  her.  I  can  not  understand  the  feelings  of 
those  wlio  would  like  to  be  remembered  far  on  in  the  fu- 
ture, but  I  think  it  is  pleasant  for  us  to  think  that  our 
friends  and  associates  will  remember  us  when  we  are 
gone.  To  get  w^orldly  fame  men  tread  on  nettles,  and 
work  mightily  and  die  wretchedly.  Human  aggrandize- 
ment gives  no  permanent  satisfaction. 

I  had  an  aged  friend  who  went  into  the  White  House 
when  General  Jackson  was  President  of  the  United 
States,  four  days  before  he  left  the  White  House,  and 
^ae  President  said  to  him,  "I  am  bothered  almost  to 
death.  People  strive  for  this  White  House  as  though 
it  were  some  grand  thing  to  get  here,  but  I  tell  you  it 
is  a  perfect  hell!"  There  was  nothing  in  the  eleva- 
tion the  world  had  given  him  that  rendered  him  satis- 
faction, or  could  keep  off  the  annoyances  and  vexations 
of  life. 

A  man  writes  a  book.     He  thinks  it  will  circulate  for 


100  THE  BEST  WE  HAVE. 

a  long  while.  Before  long  it  goes  into  the  archives  of 
the  city  library  to  be  disturbed  once  a  year,  and  that 
when  the  janitor  cleans  house !  A  man  builds  a  splen- 
did home,  and  thinks  he  will  get  fame  from  it.  '  A  few 
years  pass  along,  and  it  goes  down  under  the  auctioneer's 
mallet  at  the  executor's  sale,  and  a  stranger  buys  it. 

The  Pyramids  were  constructed  for  the  honor  of  the 
men  who  ordered  them  built.  Who  built  them  ?  Do  not 
know!  For  whom  were  they  built?  Do  not  know; 
their  whole  history  is  an  obscuration  and  a  mystery. 
There  were  men  in  Thebes  and  Tyre  and  Babylon  who 
strove  for  great  eminence,  but  they  were  forgotten ; 
while  the  woman  of  the  text,  who  lovingly  accosted  Je- 
sus has  her  memorial  in  all  the  ages.  Ah !  men  and 
women  of  God,  I  have  found  out  the  secret :  that  which 
we  do  for  ourselves  is  forgotten  ;  that  which  we  do  for 
Christ  is  immortal.  They  who  are  kind  to  the  sick, 
they  who  instruct  the  ignorant,  they  who  comfort  the 
troubled,  shall  not  be  forgotten. 

There  have  been  more  brilliant  women  than  Florence 
Nightingale,  but  all  the  world  sings  her  praise.  There 
have  been  men  of  more  brain  than  Missionary  Carey  ; 
their  names  are  forgotten,  while  his  is  famous  on  the  rec- 
ords of  the  Christian  Church.  There  may  have  been 
women  with  vases  more  costly  than  that  which  was 
brought  into  the  house  of  Simon  the  leper;  but  their 
names  have  been  forgotten,  while  I  stand  before  you  to- 
night reading  the  beautiful  story  of  this  Bethany  wor- 
shiper. In  the  gallery  of  heaven  are  the  portraits  of 
Christ's  faithful  servants,  and  the  monuments  may  crum- 
ble, and  earth  may  burn,  and  the  stars  may  fall,  and  time 
may  perish ;  but  God's  faithful  ones  shall  be  talked  of 


THE  BEST  WE  HAVE.  101 

among  the  thrones,  and  from  the  earthly  seed  they  sowed 
there  shall  be  reaped  a  harvest  of  everlasting  joy. 

In  contrast  with  the  struggle  for  earthly  aggrandize- 
ment, I  put  the  life  and  the  death  of  an  aged  Christian 
minister  who  lay  down  in  the  country  parsonage  the 
other  day  and  died.  A  brilliant  intellect,  a  large  heart, 
and  a  consecrated  life  were  the  alabaster-box  he  brought 
to  Jesus.  For  fort}^  years  he  had  toiled  for  the  welfare 
of  men,  and  then  he  laid  down  peacefully  and  died.  We 
went  out  to  put  him  away  to  his  sleep.  For  hours  the 
carriages  came  over  the  hills  and  through  the  valleys. 
The  aged  came,  who  had  forty  years  ago  entertained  him 
at  their  own  firesides.  The  young  came,  who  had  taken 
his  benediction  from  the  marriage  altar.  Ministers  of  all 
denominations  of  Christians  came,  with  whom  he  had 
mingled  in  Christian  counsel.  We  joined  hands  that 
day  in  new  consecration  to  the  cause  for  which  he  had 
lived  and  died,  and  there  we  put  him  away  in  the  shad- 
ow of  the  old  meeting-house,  amidst  the  graves  of  his 
kindred,  and  whole  generations  in  the  door  of  whose  sep- 
ulchre he  had  stood  with  consolation,  and  so  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  resurrection,  when  he  rises  up,  he  will  find  his 
old  friends  all  around  him,  and  say :  "  I  baptized  you  ; 
I  married  you ;  I  buried  you ;  this  is  the  day  of  which 
I  often  spoke ;  it  is  the  resurrection !"  When  I  came 
to  talk  of  his  departure,  I  did  not  have  long  to  look  for 
a  text ;  this  one  immediately  flashed  upon  my  mind  : 
"Let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous — let  my  last  end 
be  like  his." 

I  learn  further  from  this  subject  that  Christ  deserves  the 
test  of  every  tiling.  That  woman  could  have  got  a  vase 
that  would  not  have  cost  so  much  as  those  made  of  ala- 


102  THE  BEST  WE  HAVE. 

baster.  She  miglit  have  brought  perfume  that  would 
have  cost  only  fifty  pence;  this  cost  three  hundred.  As 
far  as  I  can  understand,  her  whole  fortune  was  in  it.  She 
might  have  been  more  economical ;  but  no — she  gets  the 
very  best  box,  and  puts  in  it  the  very  best  perfume,  and 
pours  it  all  out  on  the  head  of  her  Kedeemer.  My  broth- 
ers and  sisters  in  Christ,  the  trouble  is  that  we  bring  to 
Christ  too  cheap  a  box.  If  we  have  one  of  alabaster  and 
one  of  earthenware,  we  keep  the  first  for  ourselves,  and 
we  give  the  latter  to  Christ.  We  owe  Jesus  the  best  of 
our  time,  the  best  of  our  talents,  the  best  of  every  thing. 
Is  there  an  hour  in  the  day  when  we  are  wider  awake 
than  any  other,  more  capable  of  thought  and  feeling,  let 
us  bring  that  to  Christ.  We  are  apt  to  take  a  few  mo- 
ments in  the  morning  when  we  are  getting  awake,  or  a 
few  moments  at  night  when  we  are  getting  asleep,  to 
Jesus.  If  there  be  an  hour  in  the  day  when  we  are  most 
appreciative  of  God's  goodness  and  Christ's  pardon  and 
heaven's  joy,  oh  that  is  the  alabaster  -  box  to  bring  to 
Jesus.  We  owe  Christ  the  very  best  years  of  our  life. 
When  the  sight  is  the  clearest,  when  the  hearing  is  the 
acutest,  when  the  arm  is  the  strongest,  when  the  nerves 
are  the  steadiest,  when  the  imagination  is  the  brightest, 
let  us  come  to  Jesus,  and  not  wait  until  our  joints  are 
stiffened  with  rheumatism,  and  the  glow  is  gone  out  of 
our  temperament,  and  we  arise  in  the  morning  as  weary 
as  when  we  laid  down  at  night. 

How  often  we  bring  the  broken  pitcher  of  exhausted 
faculties  instead  of  the  bright  alabaster-box !  Men  come 
to  Christ  when  they  have  a  great  pain,  or  when  some 
terror  looks  in  at  the  store  or  house ;  but  how  few  well 
men,  how  few  prospered  men,  come  to  Jesus !     Christ  has 


THE  BEST  WE  HAVE.  103 

whole  piles  of  broken  ware  thrown  at  his  feet.  We  take 
the  best  of  the  lumber  for  our  own  structure,  and  give 
Christ  the  chips.  We  eat  the  ripe,  luscious  clusters,  and 
give  Christ  the  rinds  and  the  peelings.  The  best  thing 
we  can  do  is  to  bring  our  infancy ;  the  next  best  thing, 
our  youth ;  the  next  best  thing,  our  athletic  manhood ; 
but  I  tell  you,  the  poorest  thing  we  can  do  is  to  bring 
our  emaciation  and  sickness.  Would  it  not  be  sad  if, 
after  all  the  blessings  we  have  had,  we  should  bring  to 
Christ  a  wasted  skeleton  and  an  empty  skull  ?  or  a 
shattered  box,  when  Jesus  knows  that  for  years  we  have 
had  in  our  possession  the  vases  of  Alabastron  ? 

The  people  of  Circassia  used,  until  sixty  years  of  age, 
to  worship  on  the  outside  of  the  temple.  They  let  the 
younger  people  go  in.  These  old  men  tarried  outside, 
because  they  wanted  to  give  themselves  up  to  worldliness 
and  vice.  At  sixty  years  of  age  they  proposed  to  go  in 
and  worship.  How  many  stand  now  on  the  outside  of 
the  temple  of  Christian  sanctification  and  Christian  work, 
expecting  after  a  while  to  go  in  !  I  can  think  of  but  two 
aged  men  that  the  Bible  speaks  of  as  coming  to  God, 
Abraham,  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  Nicodemus,  in  the 
l^ew.  "  Eemember  now  thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy 
youth,  while  the  evil  days  come  not,  nor  the  years  draw 
nigh  when  thou  shalt  say,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  them." 
Oh  that  to-night  I  might  twine  all  these  youthful  hearts 
into  a  wreath  for  my  blessed  Jesus  ! 

But  I  remark  further,  that  we  owe  to  Christ  the  best 
of  all  our  affections.  If  there  is  any  body  on  earth  you 
love  better  than  Jesus,  you  wrong  him.  Who  has  ever 
been  so  loving  and  pure  and  generous?  Which  one  of 
your  friends  offered  to  pay  all  your  debts,  and  carry  all 

5 


^=^. 


'J  .  J-  St  .a.^.^..^  -  J  ^6^-^ 


lOJ.  THE  BEST  WE  HAVE. 

your  burdens,  and  suffer  all  your  pains  ?  Wbicli  one  of 
them  offered  to  go  into  the  grave  to  make  you  richer? 
Tell  me  who  he  is,  and  where  he  lives,  that  I  may  go 
and  worship  him  also.  No,  no,  you  know  there  has 
never  been  but  one — Jesus— and  that  if  he  got  his  dues, 
we  would  bring  to  him  all  the  gems  of  the  mountains, 
and  all  the  pearls  of  the  sea,  and  all  the  flowers  of  the 
field,  and  all  the  fruits  of  the  tropics,  and  all  the  crowns 
of  dominion,  and  all  the  boxes  of  alabaster.  If  you  have 
any  brilliancy  of  wit,  bring  it;  any  clearness  of  judg- 
ment, any  largeness  of  heart,  any  attractiveness  of  posi- 
tion, bring  them.  Away  with  the  cheap  bottles  of  stale 
perfume,  when  you  may  fill  the  banqueting-hall  of  Christ 
with  exquisite  aroma !  Paul  had  made  great  speeches 
before,  but  he  made  his  best  speech  for  Christ.  John 
had  warmth  of  affection  in  other  directions,  but  he  had 
his  greatest  warmth  of  affection  for  Christ.  Kobert 
M'Cheyne  was  weary  before,  but  he  worked  himself  to 
death  for  Christ.  Jesus  deserves  the  best  word  we  ever 
uttered,  the  gladdest  song  we  ever  sang,  the  lovingest 
letter  we  ever  wrote,  the  healthiest  day  we  ever  lived, 
the  strongest  heart-throb  we  ever  felt. 

I  will  go  further,  and  say  we  owe  to  Christ  all  our 
Icindred  and  friends.  Is  thei'e  a  child  in  your  household 
especially  bright  and  beautiful,  take  it  right  up  to  Jesus. 
Hold  it  in  baptism  before  him  ;  kneel  beside  it  in  prayer ; 
take  it  right  up  to  where  Jesus  is.  Oh,  do  you  not 
know,  father  and  mother,  that  the  best  thing  that  could 
happen  to  that  child  would  be  to  have  Jesus  put  his 
hands  on  it?  ,  If  some  day  Jesus  should  come  to  the 
household,  and  take  one  away  to  come  back  never, 
never,  do  not  resist  him ;  his  heart  is  warmer,  his  arm 


THE  BEST  WE  HAVE.  105 

stronger  than  yours.  The  cradle  for  a  child  is  not  so 
safe  a  place  as  the  arms  of  Jesus.  If  Christ  should  come 
into  your  household  where  you  have  your  very  best 
treasures,  and  should  select  from  all  the  caskets  an  ala- 
baster-box, do  not  repulse  him.  It  has  seemed  as  if 
Jesus  took  the  best ;  from  many  of  your  households  the 
best  one  is  gone.  You  knew  that  she  was  too  good  for 
this  world;  she  was  the  gentlest  in  her  ways,  the  deep- 
est in  her  affections,  and  when  at  last  the  sickness  came, 
you  had  no  faith  in  medicines.  You  knew  that  Jesus 
was  coming  over  the  door-sill.  You  knew  that  the  hour 
of  parting  had  come,  and  when,  through  the  rich  grace 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  you  surrendered  that  treasure, 
you  said,  "  Lord  Jesus,  take  it — it  is  the  best  we  have — 
take  it.  Thou  art  worthy."  The  others  in  the  house- 
hold may  have  been  of  grosser  mould ;  she  was  of  ala- 
baster. 

The  other  day  a  man  was  taking  me  from  the  depot 
to  a  village.  He  was  very  rough  and  coarse,  and  very 
blasphemous;  but  after  a  while  he  mellowed  down  as  he 
began  to  talk  of  his  little  son  whom  he  had  lost.  "  Oh, 
sir !"  he  said,  "  that  boy  was  different  from  the  rest  of  us. 
He  never  used  any  bad  language ;  no,  sir.  I  never  heard 
him  use  a  bad  word  in  my  life.  He  used  to  say  his 
prayers,  and  we  laughed  at  him ;  but  he  would  keep  on 
saying  his  prayers,  and  I  often  thought  I  can't  keep 
that  child;  and  I  said  to  my  wife,  '  Mother,  we  can't  keep 
that  child.'  But,  sir,  the  day  he  was  drowned,  and  they 
brought  him  in  and  laid  him  down  on  the  carpet  so  white 
and  so  beautiful,  my  heart  broke,  sir.  I  knew  we  could 
not  keep  him."  Yes,  yes,  that  is  Christ's  way ;  he  takes 
the  alabaster-box. 


106  THE  BEST  WE  HAVE. 

Kow,  my  friends,  this  woman  made  her  offering  to 
Christ.  What  offering  have  you  to  make  to  Jesus? 
She  brought  an  alabaster-box,  and  she  brought  oint- 
ment. Some  of  you  have  been  sick.  In  the  hours  of 
loneliness  and  suffering,  you  said,  "Lord  Jesus,  let  me 
get  well  this  time,  and  I  will  be  consecrated  to  thee." 
The  medicines  did  their  work ;  the  doctor  was  success- 
ful ;  you  are  well ;  you  are  here  to-night.  What  offer- 
ing have  you  to  make  to  the  Lord  Jesus  who  cured  you? 
Some  of  you  have  been  out  to  Greenwood,  not  as  those 
who  go  to  look  at  the  monuments  and  criticise  the  epi- 
laphs,  but  in  the  procession  that  came  out  of  the  gate 
with  one  less  than  when  you  went  in.  And  yet  you 
have  been  comforted.  The  grave-digger's  spade  seemed 
to  turn  up  the  flowers  of  that  good  land  where  God  shall 
wipe  away  the  tears  from  your  eyes.  For  that  Jesus 
who  so  comforted  you  and  so  pitied  you,  what  offering 
have  you  to  make?  Some  of  you  have  passed  without 
any  special  trouble.  To-day  at  noon,  when  3^ou  gath- 
ered around  the  table,  if  you  had  called  the  familiar 
names,  they  would  have  all  answered.  Plenty  at  the 
table,  plenty  in  the  wardrobe.  To  that  Jesus  who  has 
clothed  and  fed  you  all  your  life-long,  to  that  Jesus  who 
covered  himself  with  the  glooms  of  death  that  he  might 
purchase  your  emancipation,  what  offering  of  the  soul 
have  you  to  make  ? 

The  woman  of  the  text  brought  the  perfumes  of  nard. 
You  say,  "The  flowers  of  the  field  are  all  dead  now,  and 
we  can  not  bring  them."  I  know  it.  The  flowers  on 
the  platform  are  only  those  that  are  plucked  from  the 
grim  hand  of  Death  ;  they  are  the  children  of  the  hot- 
house.    The  flowers  of  the  field  are  all  dead  I     We  saw 


THE  BEST  WE  HAVE.  107 

them  blooming  in  the  valleys  and  mountains;  they  ran. 
up  to  the  very  lips  of  the  cave ;  they  garlanded  the  neck 
of  the  hills  like  a  May-queen.  They  set  their  banquet 
of  golden  cups  for  the  bee,  and  dripped  in  drops  of 
honeysuckle  for  the  humming-bird.  They  dashed  their 
antlers  against  the  white  hand  of  the  sick  child,  and 
came  to  the  nostrils  of  the  dying  like  spice  gales  from 
heaven.  They  shook  in  the  agitation  of  the  bride,  and 
at  the  burial  hour  rang  the  silver  chime  of  a  resurrec- 
tion. Beautiful  flowers  !  Bright  flowers  1  Sweet  flow- 
ers !  But  they  are  all  dead  now.  I  saw  their  scattered 
petals  on  the  foam  of  the  wild  brook,  and  I  pulled  aside 
the  hedge  and  saw  the  place  where  their  corpses  lay. 
We  can  not  bring  the  flowers.  What  shall  we  bring? 
Oh,  from  our  hearts'  affections  to-night,  let  us  bring  the 
sweet-smelling  savor  of  a  Christian  sacrifice!  Let  us 
bring  it  to  Christ;  and  as  we  have  no  other  vase  in 
w^hich  to  carry  it,  let  this  glorious  Sabbath  hour  be  the 
alabaster-box. 

Eawlins  White,  an  old  martyr,  was  very  decrepit,  and 
for  years  he  had  been  bowed  almost  double,  and  could 
hardly  walk;  but  he  was  condemned  to  death,  and  on 
his  way  to  the  stake,  we  are  told,  the  bonds  of  his  body 
seemed  to  break,  and  he  roused  himself  up  as  straight 
and  exuberant  as  an  athlete,  and  walked  into  the  fire 
singing  victory  over  the  flames.  Ah,  it  was  the  joy  of 
dying  for  Jesus  that  straightened  his  body  and  roused 
his  soul !  If  we  suffer  with  him  on  earth,  we  shall  be 
glorified  with  him  in  heaven.  Choose  his  service ;  it  is 
a  blessed  service.  Let  no  man  or  woman  go  out  of  this 
house  to-night  unblessed.  Jesus  spreads  out  both  arms 
of  his  mercy.     He  does  not  ask  where  you  came  from  or 


108  THE  BEST  WE  HAVE. 

what  have  been  your  wanderings ;  but  he  says,  with  a 
pathos  and  tenderness  that  ought  to  break  you  down, 
"  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  who  are  weary  and  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest."  Who  will  accept  the  offer  of 
his  mercy? 

"Shall  Jesus  bear  the  cross  alone, 
And  all  the  world  go  free  ? 
No,  there's  a  cross  for  every  one, 
And  there's  a  cross  for  me." 


WASTUD  AR03IA.  109 


L 


WASTED  AROMA. 

"Why  was  this  waste?" — Mark  xiv,,  14. 

AST  Sabbatli  night  in  Plymoutli  Churcli  we  saw  a 
woman  with  a  box  of  costly  perfume  pressing  into 
the  banqueting-hall  where  sat  Christ  the  physician,  and 
Simon  the  convalescent.  The  box  in  which  she  carried 
the  perfume  had  been  made  in  the  city  of  Alabastron, 
from  stone  dug  up  from  a  hill  near  that  city,  and  hence, 
you  see,  was  very  appropriately  called  an  alabaster-box. 
According  to  an  olden  custom,  she  shook  the  box  and 
poured  the  odor  out  on  the  head  of  the  Jesus  whom  she 
very  dearly  loved.  The  guests  were  seized  with  a  sud- 
den fit  of  prudence,  and  pronounced  the  whole  thing  as 
uneconomical,  crying  out  in  the  words  of  the  text,  "Why 
was  this  waste?"  But  Jesus  applauded  her,  and  said, 
"She  hath  done  what  she  could,"  and  proclaimed  the 
fact  that  her  behavior  should  be  approvingly  known 
through  all  the  earth  and  through  all  the  ages. 

Now,  before  I  come,  this  morning,  to  the  main  thought 
of  my  subject,  I  want  you  to  see  what  a  beautiful  thing 
it  is  for  a  woman  to  approach  Christ.  This  woman  of 
Bethany  might  have  done  a  great  many  pleasant  things 
before ;  but  this  was  the  grandest,  bravest,  sweetest  thing 
she  ever  did,  and  it  is  told  as  a  memorial  of  her. 

Woman's  life  is  dull  and  monotonous  in  this  country 
without  Jesus.  Men  may  go  out  into  the  world,  as  they 
do  every  day,  and  they  see  new  sights  and  hear  new 


110  WASTED  AROMA. 

sounds;  but  woman,  for  the  most  part,  suffers  and  toils 
indoors.  She  needs  a  rest  and  inspiration  she  can  not 
get  from  music  and  needle-work.  She  has  affections 
deep  and  priceless,  and  will  never  be  happy  until  she 
pours  that  alabaster  -  box  on  the  head  of  Christ.  She 
may  try  to  satisfy  her  soul  by  drawing-room  flatteries 
and  elegancies  of  apparel,  but  will  often  feel  great  dis- 
quietude. She  can  not  have  peace  here  and  a  state  of 
well-being  hereafter,  unless,  like  the  woman  of  the  text, 
she  bursts  into  the  room  where  Jesus  sits,  with  all  wor- 
shipful affection.  Oh !  that  Mary  would,  this  morning, 
sit  down  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  and  Martha,  and  Kachel, 
and  Kebecca,  and  the  Israelitish  waiting-maid,  and  grand- 
mother Louise. 

I  see  also  that  Christ  asks  no  impossibilities.  That 
woman  brought  an  alabaster-box.  What  was  it  to  Je- 
sus? Why,  he  owns  all  the  fragrance  of  earth  and  heav- 
en ;  but  he  took  it.  He  was  satisfied  with  it.  If  it  had 
been  a  wooden  box,  he  would  have  been  just  as  well 
satisfied,  had  it  been  the  best  one  she  could  bring.  I 
hear  some  one  say,  "  If  I  only  had  this,  that,  or  the  other 
thing,  I  would  do  so  much  for  God."  In  the  last  day  it 
may  be  found  that  a  cup  of  cold  water  given  in  the  name 
of  a  disciple  gets  as  rich  a  reward  as  the  founding  of  a 
kingdom,  and  that  the  sewing-girl's  needle  may  be  as 
honorable  in  God's  sight  as  a  king's  sceptre,  and  that  the 
grandest  eulogium  that  was  ever  uttered  about  any  one 
was,  "  She  hath  done  what  she  could." 

There  she  sits  at  the  head  of  the  Sabbath -school  class, 
and  she  says,  "I  wish  I  understood  the  Scriptures  in 
Greek  and  Hebrew.  I  wish  I  had  more  faculty  for  in- 
struction.    I  wish  I  could  get  the  attention  of  my  class. 


WASTED  JMOMA.  HI 

I  wisli  I  could  bring  tliem  all  to  Christ."  Do  not  wor- 
ry. Clirist  does  not  want  you  to  know  the  Scriptures  in 
Greek  and  Hebrew.  Do  as  well  as  you  can,  and  from  the 
throne  the  proclamation  will  flame  forth,  "Crown  that 
princess;  she  hath  done  what  she  could." 

There  is  a  man  toiling  for  Christ.  He  does  not  get  on 
much.  He  is  discouraged  when  he  hears  Paul  thunder, 
and  Edward  Payson  pray.  He  says,  "  I  wonder  if  I  will 
ever  join  the  song  of  heaven."  He  wonders  if  it  would 
not  look  odd  for  him  to  stand  amidst  the  apostles  who 
preached,  and  the  martyrs  who  flamed.  Greater  will  be 
his  wonder  on  the  day  when  he  shall  find  out  that  many 
who  were  first  in  the  Church  on  earth  are  last  in  the 
Church  of  heaven,  and  when  he  sees  the  procession  wind- 
ing up  among  the  thrones  of  the  sorrowing  ones,  who 
never  again  shall  weep,  and  the  weary  ones,  who  never 
again  shall  get  tired,  and  the  poor,  who  never  again  shall 
beg,  and  Christ,  regardless  of  all  antecedents,  will  put 
upon  the  head  of  his  disciples  a  crown  made  from  the 
gold  of  the  eternal  hills,  set  in  with  pearl  from  the  celes- 
tial sea,  inscribed  with  the  words,  "He  hath  done  what 
he  could." 

But  I  also  see  in  this  subject  ivhat  ivrong  notions  the 
world  has  of  economy.  Just  as  soon  as  these  people  saw 
the  ointment  spilling  on  the  head  of  Christ,  they  said, 
"Why  this  waste?  Why,  that  ointment  might  have  been 
sold  and  given  to  the  poor!"  The  hypocrites!  what  did 
they  care  about  the  poor?  I  do  not  believe  that  one  of 
them  that  made  the  complaint  ever  gave  a  farthing  to  the 
poor.  I  think  Judas  was  most  indignant,  and  he  sold  his 
Master  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver.  There  is  nothing  that 
makes  a  stingy  man  so  cross  as  to  see  generosity  in  oth- 


112  WASTED  AROMA. 

ers.  If  this  woman  of  the  text  had  brought  in  an  old, 
worn-out  box,  with  some  stale  perfume,  and  given  that 
to  Christ,  they  could  have  endured  it;  but  to  have  her 
bring  in  a  vessel  on  which  had  been  expended  the  adroit- 
ness of  skilled  artisans,  and  containing  perfume  that  had 
usually  been  reserved  for  palatial  and  queenly  use,  they 
could  not  stand  it.  And  so  it  is  often  the  case  in  com- 
munities and  in  churches,  that  those  are  the  most  unpop- 
ular men  who  give  the  most.  Judas  can  not  bear  to  see 
the  alabaster-box  broken  at  the  feet  of  Christ. 

Here  is  a  man  who  gives  a  thousand  dollars  to 
the  missionary  cause.  Men  cry  out,  "What  a  waste! 
What's  the  use  of  sending- New  Testaments  and  mission- 
aries, and  spending  your  money  in  that  way?  Why 
don't  you  send  plows,  and  corn-threshers,  and  locomo- 
tives, and  telegraphs?"  But  is  it  a  waste?  Ask  the  na- 
tions that  have  been  saved :  Have  not  religious  blessings 
always  preceded  financial  blessings?  Show  me  a  com- 
munity where  the  Gospel  of  Christ  triumphs,  and  I  will 
show  you  a  community  prospered  in  a  worldly  sense. 
Is  it  a  waste  to  comfort  the  distressed,  to  instruct  the  ig- 
norant, to  balk  immorality,  to  capture  for  God  the  in- 
numerable hosts  of  men  who  erst  with  quick  feet  were 
tramping  the  way  to  hell  ?  If  a  man  buy  railroad  stock, 
it  may  decline ;  if  a  man  invest  in  a  bank,  the  cashier 
may  abscond ;  if  a  man  go  into  partnership,  his  associ- 
ate may  sink  the  store.  Alas!  for  the  man  who  has 
nothing  better  than  "greenbacks"  and  Government  se- 
curities! God  ever  and  anon  blows  up  the  money-safe, 
and,  with  a  hurricane  of  marine  disaster,  dismantles  the 
merchantmen,  and  from  the  blackened  heavens  he  hurls 
into  the  exchanore  the  hissinsr  thunder-bolts  of  his  wrath. 


WASTED  AROMA.  113 

People  cry  up  t"his  investment  and  cry  down  the  other; 
but  I  tell  you  there  is  no  safe  investment  save  that  which 
is  made  in  the  bank  of  which  God  holds  the  keys.  The 
interest  in  that  is  always  being  paid,  and  there  are  eter- 
nal dividends.  God  will  change  that  gold  into  crowns 
that  shall  never  lose  their  lustre,  and  into  sceptres  that 
shall  forever  wave  over  a  land  where  the  poorest  inhab- 
itant is  richer  than  all  the  wealth  of  earth  tossed  np  into 
one  glittering  coin!  So  if  I  stand  this  morning  before 
men  who  are  now  of  small  means,  but  who  once  were 
greatly  prospered,  and  who  in  the  days  of  their  prosperi- 
ty were  benevolent,  let  me  ask  you  to  sit  down  and  count 
up  your  investments.  All  the  loaves  of  bread  you  ever 
gave  to  the  hungry — they  are  yours  yet;  all  the  shoes 
you  ever  gave  to  the  barefooted — they  are  yours  yet;  all 
tbe  dollars  you  ever  gave  to  churches,  and  schools,  and 
colleges — they  are  yours  yet.  Bank -clerks  sometimes 
make  mistakes  about  deposits;  but  God  keeps  an  unfail- 
ing record  of  all  Christian  deposits ;  and  though  on  the 
great  judgment  there  may  be  a  "run"  upon  that  bank, 
ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  men  will  get  back  all 
they  ever  gave  to  Christ — get  all  back,  heaped  up,  press- 
ed down,  shaken  together,  and  running  over. 

A  young  Christian  woman  starts  to  instruct  the  freed- 
men  at  the  South,  with  a  spelling-book  in  one  hand  and 
a  Bible  in  the  other.  She  goes  aboard  a  steamer  for 
Savannah.  Through  days,  and  months,  and  years  she 
toils  among  the  freedmen  of  the  South,  and  one  day 
there  comes  up  a  poisonous  breath  from  the  swamp,  and 
a  fever  smites  her  low,  and  far  away  from  home,  watched 
tearfully  by  those  whom  she  has  come  to  save,  she  drops 
^to  an  early  grave.     "  Ob,  what  a  waste !  waste  of  beau- 


114  WASTUD  AROMA. 

ty,  waste  of  talent,  waste  of  affection,  waste  of  every 
thing,"  cries  the  world.  "  Why,  she  might  have  been 
the  joy  of  her  father's  house ;  she  might  have  been  the 
pride  of  the  drawing-room."  But  in  the  day  when  re- 
wards are  given  for  earnest  Christian  work,  her  inher- 
itance will  make  insignificant  all  the  treasures  of  Croesus. 
Not  wasted,  her  gentle  words;  not  wasted,  her  home- 
sickness; not  wasted,  her  heart-aches;  not  wasted,  her 
tears  of  loneliness;  not  wasted,  the  pangs  of  her  last 
hour;  not  wasted,  the  sweat  on  her  dying  pillow.  The 
freedmen  thought  it  was  the  breath  of  the  magnolia  in 
the  thicket;  the  planter  thought  it  was  the  sweetness 
of  acacia  coming  up  from  the  hedge.  ISTo,  no;  it  was 
the  fragrance  of  an  alabast^er-box  poured  on  the  head  of 
Christ. 

Our  world  will  after  a  while  burn  up.  So  great  have 
been  its  abominations  and  disorders,  that  one  would  think 
that  when  the  flames  touch  it  a  horrible  stench  would 
roll  into  the  skies:  the  coal-mines  consuming,  the  im- 
purities of  great  cities  burning,  you  might  think  that  a 
lost  spirit  from  the  pit  would  stagger  back  at  the  sick- 
ening odor.  But  no.  I  suppose  on  that  day  a  cloud  of 
incense  will  roll  into  the  skies,  all  the  wilderness  of  trop- 
ical flowers  on  fire,  the  mountains  of  frankincense,  the 
white  sheet  of  the  water-lilies,  the  million  tufts  of  heli- 
otrope, the  trellises  of  honeysuckle,  the  walls  of  "morn- 
ing-glory." The  earth  shall  be  a  burning  censer  held 
up  before  the  throne  of  God,  with  all  the  sweet  odors  of 
the  hemispheres.  But  on  that  day  a  sweeter  gale  shall 
waft  into  the  skies.  It  will  come  up  from  ages  past, 
from  altars  of  devotion,  and  hovels  of  poverty,  and  beds 
of  pain,  and  stakes  of  martyrdom,  and  from  all  the  places 


WASTED  AROMA.  115 

where  good  men  and  women  have  suffered  for  God  and 
died  for  the  truth.  It  will  be  the  fragrance  of  ten  thou- 
sand boxes  of  alabaster,  which,  through  the  long  reach 
of  the  ages,  were  poured  on  the  head  of  Christ. 

Last  Sabbath  morning,  I  think  a  great  many  persons, 
standing  in  the  presence  of  our  burning  Tabernacle  on 
Schermerhorn  Street,  said,  "  What  a  waste !  Here  all 
the  toil  expended  gone  in  an  hour."  Indeed,  those  who 
have  built  churches  know  that  there  are  a  great  many 
toils  and  anxieties  and  sacrifices  connected  with  such  an 
enterprise ;  the  solicitation  and  collection  of  funds ;  the 
selection  of  a  site  for  building;  the  choice  of  architects 
and  plans  and  materials;  the  discussion  of  acoustics; 
the  watching  of  building  committees,  themselves  severe- 
ly watched ;  the  fatigue  by  day  and  the  sleeplessness  by 
night.  It  is  a  fact  that,  in  many  cases,  after  the  church 
has  been  built,  the  congregation  is  exhausted,  and  the 
minister  is  kicked  out.  Oh,  you  people  of  the  Brooklyn 
Tabernacle,  what  have  you  to  show  for  all  the  toil,  and 
prayer,  and  expenditure  of  the  last  two  years?  A  heap 
of  ashes,  twisted  walls,  scorched  pillars — an  utter  oblit- 
eration of  all  you  have  done.  "Why  was  this  waste?" 
Ah,  my  dear  friends,  there  was  not  any  waste.  All  the 
toil  and  money  you  put  in  that  enterprise  had  a  heaven- 
ly insurance,  and  it  will  be  paid  back  to  you  in  some 
shape.  You  may  depend  upon  that.  What  money  I 
gave  toward  it,  I  would  rather  have  where  it  is — this 
morning — than  have  it  in  my  pocket;  having  it  in  my 
pocket,  I  might  lose  it ;  but  where  it  is,  it  is  safe  forever. 
I  do  not  begrudge  a  nail,  or  a  bolt,  or  a  screw  that  went 
down  in  that  great  conflagration.  Why,  if  it  cost  us 
nothing,  do  you  think  Christ  would  have  wanted  it? 


116  WASTED  AROMA, 

Do  not  fling  any  of  your  useless,  worn-out  boxes  at  him  I 
That  was  the  great  precious  alabaster-box  that  the  con- 
gregation poured  on  the  head  of  Christ.  When  I  say 
it  was  precious,  I  only  say  what  is  true.  Our  hearts  had 
twined  around  that  place  very  much.  I  can  hear  the 
old  organ  going  yet,  marshaling  the  hosts  of  God  for  the 
battle-shout  of  Christian  song.  I  can  see  the  audience 
rising  yet  to  the  "Old  Hundred"  doxology.  I  can  see 
the  pillars  entwined  with  Christmas  garlands,  telling  the 
people  that  Jesus  is  born,  and  every  man  has  a  chance 
for  heaven.  Oh!  the  place  was  all  crowded  with  mem- 
ories; days  when  Jesus  rode  through  with  dyed  gar- 
ments from  Bozrah,  smiting  down  our  sins,  and  discom- 
fiting our  sorrows.  On  the  last  Sabbath-night  I  preach- 
ed in  that  place,  inviting  men  to  the  hope  and  joy  of 
the  Gospel,  if  I  had  known  it  was  the  last  time,  I  would 
have  kissed  the  old  place  good-bye.  It  seemed  to  me 
that  when  the  roof  went  in,  and  we  felt  that  all  was 
gone,  that  the  tears  on  the  cheeks  stopped  and  the  sighs 
ceased,  and  as  if  there  went  through  the  street  on  that 
cold  morning  one  great  groan.  But  do  not  mourn  the 
loss  of  that;  Jesus  is  worthy  of  the  most  precious  gift. 
"Was  it  a  waste?  Are  all  the  joys  we  felt  there  a  waste? 
Are  all  the  comforts  that  brooded  over  our  souls  in  days 
of  darkness,  when  trouble  came  to  our  souls  and  to  our 
families,  a  waste?  Were  the  hundreds  and  hundreds 
of  souls  who,  in  that  building  first  found  the  peace  of 
the  Gospel,  a  waste?  ISTo,  no,  no;  the  building  did  its 
work,  and  it  is  gone !  Let  not  the  woman  of  Bethany 
begrudge  the  box,  or  begrudge  the  perfume.  Let  her 
rather  go  and  get  a  better  box,  and  put  in  it  a  sweeter 
odor,  and  come  with  another  offering. 


WASTED  AHOJfA.  117 

I  have  been  bothered  all  the  morning  with  a  snatch  of 
an  old  hymn  which  I  can  not  quite  catch.  I  wish  some 
of  you  would  hunt  it  up  and  tell  it  to  me.  I  get  only 
two  or  three  lines  of  it: 

"  Her  dust  and  ruins  that  remain 
Are  precious  in  our  eyes ; 
Those  ruins  shall  be  built  again, 
And  all  that  dust  shall  rise." 

You  remember  that,  Father  Waterbury ;  find  it  for 
me  sometime. 

God  means  something  by  this  disaster.  If  such  a  torch 
be  lifted,  it  means  to  light  us  somewhere.  I  wish  that 
fire  had  burned  up  all  our  sins.  I  wish  that  it  might 
teach  us  what  a  poor  foundation  man  builds  on  when  he 
builds  in  this  world,  and  that  iron  and  brick  and  granite 
are  wax  when  God  breathes  on  them.  We  see  that  there 
is  nothing  of  an  earthly  nature  safe.  Does  not  the  tele- 
graph flashing  from  all  parts  of  the  earth  now  bring  bale- 
ful tidings?  You  are  not  safe  on  land  or  on  sea.  Wit- 
ness the  Portuguese  bark  driven,  on  night  before  last, 
on  Peaked  Head  Bar,  and  the  bark  Kadosh  on  Aldernon 
Point.  Ay,  you  are  not  safe  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea. 
Witness  the  hurricane  that  last  week  swept  over  Lon- 
don; witness  the  floods  that  swept  through  Derbyshire. 
You  are  not  safe  on  the  rail  train.  The  lightning  ex- 
press last  week  rolls  over  an  embankment  in  Pennsylva- 
nia,  and  thirty  lives  are  ground  out.  On  last  Tuesday 
night  the  floor  gives  way  under  a  festival,  and  the  man- 
gled children  are  dragged  out  on  the  snow  for  fathers  and 
mothers  to  look  at.  God,  by  fire,  and  earthquake,  and 
storm,  is  crying  to  all  the  earth,  saying:  "Build  higher; 


118  WASTED  AROMA. 

build  firmer;  build  on  the  rock."  I  am  glad  to  bear 
that  there  were  some  of  our  people  who,  in  the  presence 
of  that  raving,  thundering  ruin  last  Sabbath  morning,  re- 
solved to  be  the  Lord's.  They  started  for  heaven.  They 
say:  "Is  this  the  way  things  go  on  earth?  Give  me 
something  better,  something  stronger,  something  that  will 
last." 

My  friends,  all  these  flames  in  Brooklyn  and  in  Chica- 
go and  in  Boston  are  only  prefigurements  of  a  great  day 
of  fire  which  you  and  I  will  see  just  as  certainly  as  you 
sit  there  and  I  stand  here.  That  day  the  fire  will  test 
us  thoroughly.  It  will  show  w^hether  our  religion  is  a 
reality,  or  whether  it  is  a  false -fiice.  When  that  fire 
comes  over  the  fields,  it  will  come  swifter  than  an  autum- 
nal fire  across  the  Illinois  prairie.  Before  it,  beasts  will 
dash  from  the  rocks  in  wild  leap.  Coming  over  the  prec- 
ipices, it  will  be  a  Niagara  of  fire.  The  continents  of 
eartb  will  wrap  themselves  in  a  winding-sheet  of  flame, 
and  the  mountains  will  cry  to  the  plain,  "Fire!"  and  the 
plain  will  cry  to  the  sea,  "Fire!"  and  the  sea  will  cry  to 
the  sky,  "Fire!"  and  heaven  will  answer  back  to  earth, 
and  the  caverns  will  groan  it,  and  the  winds  will  shriek 
it,  and  the  thunders  will  toll  it,  and  the  storms  will  wail 
it,  and  the  nations  will  cry  it,  "Fire!  fire!"  And  the 
day  will  burn  on,  and  away  will  go  all  the  churches  j^ou 
ever  built,  and  away  will  go  all  your  store-houses,  and 
away  will  go  all  your  cities.  But  what  will  become  of 
those  who  have  no  Christ,  no  sins  pardoned,  no  heaven 
secured?  Oh,  I  wish  that  this  morning,  in  our  first  serv- 
ice in  this  beautiful  place,  the  hour  might  be  signalized 
by  a  great  stampede  for  heaven  !  I  wish  that  you  would 
all  come  in,  fathers,  mothers,  brothers,  sisters,  husbands, 


WASTED  AROMA.  119 

wives,  sons,  daughters,  friends,  and  neighbors.  In  tbe 
presence  of  tlie  great  sorrow  that  has  come  upon  us,  can 
you  not  do  that?  Do  you  believe  that  if  this  morning, 
with  all  the  solemn  surroundings  of  the  past  week,  you 
reject  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  you  will  ever  feel?  Do  not 
some  of  you  think  that  this  is  the  last  opportunity?  Do 
you  not  feel  that  if  you  drive  away  the  Spirit  of  God,  he 
will  never  come  back?  Do  you  not  think  that  God  is 
speaking  to  me,  and  speaking  to  you  all  ?  Oh  !  that  this 
house,  set  apart  for  secular  song,  might  this  morning  hear 
sweeter  music,  namely,  the  angelic  minstrelsy  that  sounds 
when  sins  are  pardoned,  and  God  is  glorified,  and  Jesus 
sees  the  travail  of  his  soul,  and  is  satisfied.  Strike  all 
your  harps,  ye  spirits  blessed,  the  prodigal  is  come  home ! 
Clap  your  hands,  all  ye  people,  the  lost  is  found  1 


120  THINGS  NOT  BUltNED   UP. 


THINGS  NOT  BURNED  UP. 

"  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye  my  people." — Isaiah  xl,,  1. 

THESE  words  came  to  Isaiah  after  Jerusalem  had 
been  wasted  with  fire  and  famine  and  war;  and 
I  wish  to-night,  from  these  leaves  of  the  tree  of  life,  to 
compound  a  salve  for  a  very  sore  burn. 

Standing  to-day  in  this  briUiant  Academy,  by  its  trus- 
tees so  kindly  afforded  us,  our  first  feeling  is  one  of  grati- 
tude to  God  and  to  them  for  so  grand  a  refuge  ;  but  not- 
withstanding it  is  so  much  costlier  a  place  than  we  are 
used  to,  we  feel  home-sick.  The  wanderer  in  a  strange 
land,  amidst  palaces  and  temples  and  cathedrals,  sits 
down  and  says  to  himself,  "I  would  give  the  whole 
world  for  one  hour  under  the  thatched  roof  of  my  hum- 
ble home."  "Home,  sweet  home  ;  there  is  no  place  like 
home."  It  was  nothing  but  home-sickness  that  made 
the  inspired  writer  say :  "  By  the  rivers  of  Babylon,  there 
we  sat  down  ;  yea,  we  wept  when  we  remembered  Zion. 
We  hanged  our  harps  upon  the  willows  in  the  midst 
thereof  For  there  they  that  carried  us  away  captive  re- 
quired of  us  a  song ;  and  they  that  wasted  us  required 
of  us  mirth,  saying,  Sing  us  one  of  the  songs  of  Zion. 
How  shall  we  sing  the  Lord's  song  in  a  strange  land  ?" 

The  Brooklyn  Tabernacle  is  gone !  The  bell  that 
hung  in  its  tower  last  Sabbath  morning  rang  its  own 
funeral  knell.  On  that  day  we  gathered  from  our  homes 
with  our  ftimilies,  to  hear  what  Christ  had  of  comfort 


THINGS  NOT  BURNED   UP.  121 

and  inspiration  for  his  people.  "We  expected  to  meet 
cheerful  smiles  and  warm  hand -shakings,  and  the  tri- 
umphant song,  and  the  large  brotherhood  that  character- 
ized that  blessed  place ;  but  coming  to  the  doors  we 
found  nothing  but  an  excited  populace  and  a  blazing 
church.  People  who  had  given  until  thej  deeply  felt  it 
saw  all  the  results  of  their  benevolence  going  down  into 
ashes,  and  on  that  cold  morning  the  tears  froze  on  the 
cheeks  of  God's  people  as  they  saw  they  were  being 
burned  out.  Brooklyn  Tabernacle  is  gone !  The  plat- 
form -on  which  it  was  my  joy  to  stand  with  messages  of 
salvation  ;  the  pews  in  which  you  listened  and  prayed 
and  wept  and  rejoiced ;  the  altars  around  which  you  and 
your  children  were  consecrated  in  baptism  ;  the  commun- 
ion-table where  we  celebrated  the  Saviour's  love — all 
that  scene  which  to  us  was  the  shining  gate  of  heaven 
is  gone.  I  will  not  hide  the  loss.  If  I  ever  forget  the 
glorious  Sabbaths  we  spent  there,  and  the  sweet  re- 
unions, and  the  mighty  demonstrations  of  God's  Spirit 
among  the  people,  may  my  right  hand  forget  her  cun- 
ning, and  my  soul  be  left  desolate!  But  we  have  not 
come  here  to  sound  a  dirge.  "All  things  work  together 
for  good  to  them  that  love  God."  Sorrows  are  loath- 
some things,  but  they  are  necessary.  They  are  leeches 
that  suck  out  the  hot  inflammation  from  the  soul. 
"Weeping  may  endure  for  a  night,  but  joy  cometh  in 
llie  morning."  I  could  cover  up  all  this  place  with  prom- 
ises of  hope  and  peace  and  comfort  and  deliverance. 
H.illelnjah  1  for  the  Lord  God  omnipotent  reigneth  ! 

I  am  here  to-night  not  to  preach  a  formal  sermon,  but 
to  tell  you  0^  some  ihiugs  thai  last  Sahhath  icere  not  burned 
lip. 


122  THINGS  NOT  BURNED   UP. 

First,  the  spirit  of  Christian  brotherhood  was  not  con- 
sumed. You  never  greeted  the  members  of  our  church 
"with  such  cordiahtj  as  this  week  on  the  street,  in  cars, 
and  on  the  ferries.  You  stood  on  no  cold  formalities. 
The  people  who,  during  the  last  two  years  sat  on  the 
other  side  of  the  aisle,  whose  faces  were  familiar  to  you, 
but  to  whom  you  had  never  spoken,  you  greeted  them 
this  week  with  smiles  and  tears  as  you  said,  "  Well,  the 
old  place  is  gone."  You  did  not  want  to  seem  to  cry, 
and  so  you  swept  the  sleeve  near  the  corner  of  the  eye, 
and  pretended  it  was  the  sharp  wind  that  made  your 
eyes  weak.  Ah !  there  was  nothing  the  matter  with 
your  eyes ;  it  was  your  soul  bubbling  over.  I  tell  you 
that  it  is  impossible  to  sit  for  two  or  three  years  around 
the  same  church  fireside  and  not  have  sympathies  in 
common.  Somehow  you  feel  that  you  would  like  those 
people  on  the  other  side  of  the  aisle,  about  whom  you 
know  but  little,  prospered  and  pardoned  and  blessed  and 
saved.  You  feel  as  if  you  are  in  the  same  boat,  and  you 
want  to  glide  up  the  same  harbor,  and  want  to  disembark 
at  the  same  wharf  If  you  put  gold  and  iron  and  lead 
and  zinc  in  sufficient  heat,  they  will  melt  into  a  conglom- 
erate mass ;  and  I  really  feel  that  last  Sabbath's  fire  has 
fused  us  all,  grosser  and  finer  natures,  into  one.  It 
seems  as  if  we  all  had  our  hands  on  a  wire  connected 
with  an  electric  battery  ;  and  when  this  church  sorrow 
started,  it  thrilled  through  the  whole  circle,  and  we  all 
felt  the  shock.  The  oldest  man  and  the  youngest  child 
could  join  hands  in  this  misfortune.  Grandfather  said, 
"I  expected  from  those  altars  to  be  buried ;"  and  one  of 
the  children  last  Sabbath  cried,  "I  don't  want  the  Tab- 
ernacle to  burn,  I  have  been  there  so  many  times."     You 


THINGS  NOT  BURNED   UP.  123 

may  remember  that  over  the  organ  we  had  the  words, 
"One  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism."  That  was  our 
creed.  Well,  that  is  all  burned  down  ;  but  the  senti- 
ment is  engraved  with  such  durability  in  our  souls  that 
no  earthl}^  fire  can  scorch  it,  and  the  flames  of  the  Judg- 
ment-day will  have  no  power  to  burn  it. 

Another  thing  that  did  not  burn  up  is  the  cross  of  Christ. 
That  is  used  to  the  fire.  On  the  dark  day  when  Jesus 
died,  the  lightning  struck  it  from  above,  and  the  flames 
of  hell  dashed  up  against  it  from  beneath.  That  tearful, 
painful,  tender,  blessed  cross  still  stands.  On  it  we  hang 
all  our  hopes  ;  beneath  it  we  put  down  all  our  sins  ;  in  the 
light  of  it  we  expect  to  make  the  rest  of  our  pilgrimage. 
Within  sight  of  such  a  sacrifice,  who  can  feel  he  has  it 
hard?  In  the  sight  of  such  a  symbol,  who  can  be  dis- 
couraged, however  great  the  darkness  that  may  come 
down  upon  him?  Jesus  lives!  The  loving,  patient, 
sympathizing,  mighty  Jesus!  It  shall  not  be  told  on 
earth,  or  in  hell,  or  in  heaven,  that  three  Hebrew  chil- 
dren had  the  Son  of  God  beside  them  in  the  fire,  and 
that  a  whole  church  was  forsaken  by  the  Lord,  when 
they  went  through  a  furnace  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
front  by  one  hundred  deep.  O  Lord  Jesus!  shall  we 
take  out  of  thy  hand  the  flowers  and  the  fruits,  and  the 
brightness  and  the  joys,  and  then  turn  away  because 
thou  dost  give  us  one  cup  of  bitterness  to  drink?  Oh 
no,  Jesus  !.  we  will  drink  it  dry.  But  how  it  is  changed  I 
Blessed  Jesus,  what  hast  thou  put  into  the  cup  to  sweet- 
en it?  Why,  it  has  become  the  wine  of  heaven,  and 
our  souls  grow  strong.  I  come  to-night,  and  place  both 
of  my  feet  deep  down  into  the  blackened  ashes  of  our 
consumed  church,  and  I  cry  out  with  an  exhilaration 


/\ 


124  THINGS  NOT  BURNED   UP. 

that  I  never  felt  since  the  day  of  my  soul's  emancipation, 
"  Victory !  victory !  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  I" 

"  Your  harps,  ye  trembling  saints, 
Down  from  the  willows  take; 
Loud  to  the  praise  of  love  divine 
Bid  every  string  awake." 

I  remark,  again,  that  the  catliolicity  of  the  Christian 
churches  has  not  been  burned  up.  We  are  in  the  Acade- 
my to-day  not  because  we  have  no  other  place  to  go. 
Last  Sabbath  morning  at  nine  o'clock  we  had  but  one 
church ;  now  we  have  twenty-six,  all  at  our  disposal. 
Their  pastors  and  their  trustees  say,  "  You  may  take  our 
main  audience-rooms,  you  may  take  our  lecture-rooms, 
you  may  take  our  ohurch  parlors,  you  may  baptize  in 
our  baptisteries,  and  sit  on  our  anxious-seats."  Oh !  if 
there  be  any  larger-hearted  ministers  or  larger-hearted 
churches  anywhere  than  in  Brooklyn,  tell  me  where 
they  are,  that  I  may  go  and  see  them  before  I  die.  The 
millennium  has  come.  People  keep  wondering  when  it 
is  coming.  It  has  come.  The  lion  and  the  lamb  lie 
down  together,  and  the  tiger  eats  straw  like  an  ox.  I 
should  like  to  have  seen  two  of  the  old-time  bigots,  with 
their  swords,  fighting  through  that  great  fire  on  Scber- 
merhorn  Street  last  Sabbath.  I  am  sure  the  swords 
would  have  melted,  and  they  who  wielded  them  would 
have  learned  war  no  more.  I  can  never  say  a  word 
against  any  other  denomination  of  Christians.  I  thank 
God  I  never  have  been  tempted  to  do  it.  I  can  not  be  a 
sectarian.  I  have  been  told  I  ought  to  be,  and  I  have 
tried  to  be,  but  I  have  not  enough  material  in  me  to 
make  such  a  structure.    Every  time  I  get  the  thing  most 


THINGS  NOT  BURNED   UP.  125 

done,  there  comes  a  fire,  or  something  else,  and  all  is 
gone.  The  angels  of  God  shake  out  on  this  Christnias 
air,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace, 
good  will  toward  men."  I  do  not  think  the  day  is  far 
distant  when  all  the  different  branches  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  will  be  one,  and  all  the  different  branches 
of  the  Methodist  Church  will  be  one,  and  all  the  differ- 
ent branches  of  the  Episcopal  Church  will  be  one.  I  do 
not  know  but  I  see  on  the  horizon  the  first  gleam  of  the 
morning  which  shall  unite  all  evangelical  denominations 
in  one  organization ;  churches  distinguished  from  each 
other,  not  by  varieties  of  creeds,  but  difference  of  local- 
it}^,  as  it  was  in  the  time  of  the  apostles.  It  was  then 
the  Church  of  Thyatira,  and  the  Church  of  Thessalonica, 
and  the  Church  of  Antioch,  and  the  Church  of  Laodicea. 
So  I  do  not  know  but  that  in  the  future  history,  and  not 
far  off  either,  it  may  be  simply  a  distinction  of  local- 
ity, and  not  of  creed,  as  the  Church  of  New  York,  the 
Church  of  Brooklyn,  the  Church  of  Boston,  the  Church 
of  Charleston,  the  Church  of  Madras,  the  Church  of  Con- 
stantinople. 

My  dear  brethren,  we  can  not  afford  to  be  severely 
divided.  Standing  in  front  of  the  great  foes  of  our  com- 
mon Christianity,  we  want  to  put  on  the  whole  armor  of 
God,  and  march  down  in  solid  column,  shoulder  to  shoul- 
der !  one  commander !  one  banner !  one  triumph ! 

"The  trumpet  gives  a  martial  strain 
O  Israel !  gird  thee  for  the  fight : 
Arise,  the  combat  to  maintain, 
Arise,  and  put  thy  foes  to  flight." 

I  have  to  announce  also,  among  the  things  not  burned 


126  THINGS  NOT  BUBNED   UP. 

up  is  heaven.  Fires  may  sweep  through  other  cities — 
we  heard  the  tolling  of  the  bell  as  we  came  in  to-night ; 
but  I  am  glad  to  know  that  the  New  Jerusalem  is  fire- 
proof. There  will  be  no  engines  rushing  through  those 
streets;  there  will  be  no  temples  consumed  in  that  city. 
Coming  to  the  doors  of  that  Church,  we  will  find  them 
open,  resonant  with  songs,  and  not  cries  of  fire.  Oh,  my 
dear  brother  and  sister !  if  this  short  lane  of  life  comes 
up  so  soon  to  that  blessed  place,  what  is  the  use  of  our 
worrying?  I  have  felt  a  good  many  times  this  last  week 
like  Father  Taylor,  the  sailor- preacher.  He  got  in  a 
long  sentence  while  he  was  preaching  one  day,  and  lost 
himself,  and  could  not  find  his  way  out  of  the  sentence. 
He  stopped,  and  said,  "Brethren,  I  have  lost  the  nomina- 
tive of  this  sentence,  and  things  are  generally  mixed  up, 
but  I  am  bound  for  the  kingdom  anyhow."  And  during 
this  last  week,  when  I  saw  the  rushing  to  and  fro  and  the 
excitement,  I  said  to  myself,  "I  do  not  know  just  where 
we  shall  start  again,  but  I  am  bound  for  the  kingdom 
anyhow."  I  do  not  want  to  go  just  yet.  I  want  to  be 
pastor  of  this  people  until  I  am  about  eighty-nine  years 
of  age,  but  I  have  sometimes  thought  that  there  are  such 
glories  ahead  that  I  might  be  persuaded  to  go  a  little 
earlier — for  instance,  at  eighty-two  or  eighty-three;  but 
I  really  think  that  if  we  could  have  an  appreciation  of 
what  God  has  in  reserve  for  us,  we  w^ould  want  to  go  to- 
night, stepping  right  out  of  the  Academy  of  Music  into 
the  glories  of  the  skies.  Ah  !  that  is  a  good  land.  Whj^, 
they  tell  me  that  in  that  land  they  never  have  a  heart- 
ache. They  tell  me  that  a  man  might  walk  five  hundred 
years  in  that  land  and  never  see  a  tear  or  hear  a  sigh. 
They  tell  me  that  our  friends  who  have  left  us  and  gone 


THIXGS  XOT  BURNED   UP.  127 

there,  i}ie\v  feet  are  radiant  as  the  sun,  and  that  they  take 
hold  of  the  hand  of  Jesus  familiarh^,  and  that  they  open 
that  hand  and  see  in  the  palm  of  it  a  healed  wound  that 
must  have  been  very  cruel  before  it  was  healed.  And 
they  tell  me  that  there  is  no  winter  there,  and  that  they 
never  get  hungry  or  cold,  and  that  the  sewing-girl  never 
wades  through  the  December  snow-bank  to  her  dailv 
toil,  and  that  the  clock  never  strikes  twelve  for  the  night, 
but  only  twelve  for  the  day. 

See  that  light  in  the  window.  I  wonder  who  set  it 
there.  "Oh!"  you  say,  "my  father  that  went  into  glory 
must  have  set  that  light  in  the  window."  No;  guess 
again.  "  My  mother,  who  died  fifteen  years  ago  in  Je- 
sus I  think  must  have  set  that  light  there."  Ko;  guess 
again.  You  say,  "My  darling  little  child,  that  last  sum- 
mer I  put  away  for  the  resurrection,  I  think  she  must 
have  set  that  light  there  in  the  window."  No;  guess 
again.  Jesus  set  it  there;  and  he  will  keep  it  burning 
until  the  day  we  put  our  finger  on  the  latch  of  the  door 
and  go  in  to  be  at  home  forever.  Oh !  when  my  sight 
gets  black  in  death,  put  on  my  eyelids  that  sweet  oint- 
ment. When  in  the  last  weariness  I  can  not  take  anoth- 
er step,  just  help  me  put  my  foot  on  that  door-sill.  When 
my  ear  catches  no  more  the  voices  of  wife  and  child,  let 
me  go  right  in,  to  have  my  deafness  cured  by  the  stroke 
of  the  harpers  whose  fingers  fly  over  the  strings  with  the 
anthems  of  the  free.  Heaven  never  burns  down  !  The 
fires  of  the  last  day,  that  are  already  kindled  in  the  heart 
of  the  earth,  but  are  hidden  because  God  keeps  down  the 
hatches — those  internal  fires  will  after  a  while  break 
through  the  crust,  and  the  plains,  and  the  mountains,  and 
the  seas  will  be  consumed,  and  the  flames  will  fling  their 

6 


128  THINGS  NOT  BURNED   UR 

long  arms  into  the  skies;  but  all  tbe  terrors  of  a  burning 
world  will  do  no  more  harm  to  that  heavenly  temple  than 
the  fires  of  the  setting  sun  which  kindle  up  the  window- 
glass  of  the  house  on  yonder  hill-top.  Oh,  blessed  land ! 
But  I  do  not  want  to  go  there  until  I  see  the  Brooklyn 
Tabernacle  rebuilt.  You  say,  "  Will  it  be  ?"  You  might 
as  well  ask  me  if  the  sun  will  rise  to-morrow  morning, 
or  if  the  next  spring  will  put  garlands  on  its  head.  You 
and  I  may  not  do  it — you  and  I  may  not  live  to  see  it; 
but  the  Church  of  God  does  not  stand  on  two  legs  nor 
on  a  thousand  legs.  I  am  here  to  tell  you  that  among 
the  things  not  burned  up  is  our  deUrmination^  in  the 
strength  and  help  of  God,  to  go  forward. 

You  say,  "Where  are  you  going  to  get  the  means?" 
I  do  not  know.  The  building  of  the  Tabernacle  within 
two  years,  and  then  an  enlargement,  at  great  expense, 
within  that  same  time,  and  the  establishment  and  the 
maintenance  of  the  Lay  College,  have  taken  most  of  our 
funds.  Did  I  say  just  now  that  I  did  not  know  where 
the  funds  are  to  come  from  ?  I  take  that  back.  I  do ! 
I  do !  From  the  hearts  of  the  Christian  people,  and  the 
lovers  of  the  cause  of  morality  all  over  this  land.  I  am 
sure  they  will  help  us,  and  we  shall  go  on,  and  the  new 
structure  shall  rise.  How  did  the  Israelites  get  through 
the  Ked  Sea?  I  suppose  somebody  may  have  come  and 
said,  "There  is  no  need  of  trying;  you  will  get  your  feet 
wet;  you  will  spoil  your  clothes;  you  will  drown  your- 
selves. Whoever  heard  of  getting  through  such  a  sea 
as  that?"  How  did  they  get  through  it?  Did  they  go 
back?  No.  Did  they  go  to  the  right ?  No.  Did  they 
go  to  the  left?  No.  They  \Yentforivard  in  the  strength 
of  the  Lord  Almighty ;  and  that  is  the  way  we  mean  to 


THINGS  NOT  BURNED   UP.  129 

get  through  the  Red  Sea.  Do  you  tell  me  that  God  is 
going  to  let  the  effort  for  the  establishment  of  a  free 
Christian  church  in  Brooklyn  fail  ?  Why,  on  the  dedi- 
cation-day of  our  Tabernacle,  I  was  not  more  confident, 
and  was  not  so  happy  as  I  am  now.  That  building 
did  its  work.  We  wanted  to  support  a  free  Christian 
church  ;  we  did  it,  and  got  along  pleasantly  and  success- 
fully, and  demonstrated  the  fact.  The  building  is  gone. 
The  ninety-five  souls  received  at  the  first  communion  in 
that  building  more  than  paid  us  for  all  the  expenditure. 
We  only  put  up  the  Tabernacle  for  two  years.  Do  you 
know  that?  Here  sits  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees right  under  me,  and  he  remembers  that  when  we 
built  we  said,  "  We  shall  put  it  up  for  two  years ;  it  will 
be  a  temporary  residence ;  and  at  the  close  of  that  time 
we  will  know  how  large  a  building  we  want,  and  what 
style  of  building  we  want."  But  having  put  it  up, 
we  liked  it  so  well,  we  concluded  to  stay  there  perma- 
nently. But  God  decided  otherwise;  and  I  take  it  as 
one  of  the  providential  indications  of  that  fearful  disas- 
ter that  we  are  to  build  a  larger  church,  and  ask  all  the 
people  to  come  in  and  be  saved.  You  know  how  we 
were  crowded,  and  pushed,  and  jammed  in  that  build- 
ing; and  last  summer  some  of  us  talked  about  an  en- 
largement, but  we  found  it  impossible  without  changing 
the  whole  structure  of  the  building.  The  difficulty  now 
is  gone ;  and  if  the  people  ^N'orth,  South,  East,  and 
West  will  help  us,  we  shall  build  on  a  larger  scale,  and 
the  hundreds  and  thousands  who  have  wanted  to  be 
with  us,  but  could  not,  shall  have  room  for  themselves 
and  families,  where  they  may  come  and  be  comforted  in 
their  sorrows,  and,  by  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  find 


130  THIXOS  NOT  BURXED   UP. 

out  the  waj^  to  heaven.  Do  you  tell  me  that  the  human 
voice  can  not  reach  more  people  than  we  used  to  have 
there?  It  is  a  mistake.  I  have  been  wearing  myself 
out  for  the  last  two  years  in  trying  to  keep  my  voice  in. 
Give  me  room  where  I  can  preach  the  glories  of  Christ 
and  the  grandeurs  of  heaven. 

The  old  iron-clad  has  gone  down  with  a  shot  amid- 
ships. We  will  build  next  time  of  brick.  The  build- 
ing shall  be  amphitheatrical  in  shape ;  it  shall  be  very 
large;  it  shall  be  very  plain.  Whether  the  material 
will  be  any  better  than  the  one  used  in  the  old  struc- 
ture, I  can  not  say,  for  there  are  four  things  that  God 
has  demonstrated  within  a  short  time  are  not  fire-proof. 
One  is  corrugated  iron  :  witness  the  Brooklyn  Taberna- 
cle. Another  is  brick:  witness  the  fire  last  week  in 
Centre  Street,  New  York.  Another  is  Joliet  stone  :  wit- 
ness Chicago.  Another  is  Quincy  granite:  witness  Bos- 
ton. When  God  rises  up  to  burn  any  thing,  a  stone 
w^all  is  shavings.  Hear  that,  oh  you  men  who  are  build- 
ing on  nothing  but  earthly  foundations!  The  people 
will  rise  up,  and  all  our  friends,  North,  South,  East, 
and  West,  who  have  been  giving  us  their  sympathies, 
will  translate  their  sympathies  and  their  "God  bless 
yous"  into  "greenbacks,"  and  next  winter  the  people 
will  cry  out,  "The  glory  of  the  second  temple  is  greater 
than  the  first.'' 

There  was  a  king  of  olden  time  who  prided  himself  on 
doing  that  which  his  people  thought  impossible;  and  it 
ought  to  be  the  joy  of  the  Christian  Church  to  accomplish 
that  which  the  world  thinks  can  not  be  done. 

But  I  want  you  to  know  that  it  will  require  more 
prayer  than  we  have  ever  offered,  and  more  hard  work 


THIXGS  NOT  BURNED   UP.  l^t 

than  we  have  ever  put  forth.  Mere  skirmishing  around 
the  mercy -seat  will  not  do.  We  have  to  take  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  by  violence.  We  have  to  march 
on,  breaking  down  all  bridges  behind  us,  making  retreat 
impossible.  Throw  away  your  knapsack  if  it  impedes 
your  march.  Keep  your  sword-arm  free.  Strike  for 
Christ  and  his  kingdom  while  you  may.  JSTo  people  ever 
had  a  better  mission  than  you  are  sent  on.  Prove  your- 
selves worthy.  If  I  am  not  fit  to  be  your  leader,  set  me 
aside.  The  brightest  goal  on  earth  that  I  can  think  of  is 
a  country  parsonage  amidst  the  mountains.  But  I  am 
not  afraid  to  lead  you.  I  have  a  few  hundred  dollars 
they  are  at  your  disposal.  I  have  good  physical  health 
it  is  yours  as  long  as  it  lasts.  I  have  enthusiasm  of  soul 
I  will  not  keep  it  back  from  your  service.  I  have  some 
faith  in  God,  and  I  shall  direct  it  toward  the  rebuilding 
of  our  new  spiritual  house.  Come  on,  then !  I  will  lead 
you.  Come  on,  ye  aged  men,  not  yet  passed  over  Jor- 
dan !  Give  us  one  more  lift  before  you  go  into  the  prom- 
ised land.  You  men  in  mid-life,  harness  all  your  busi- 
ness faculties  to  this  enterprise.  Young  man,  put  the 
fire  of  your  soul  in  this  work.  Let  women  consecrate 
their  persuasiveness  and  persistence  to  this  cause,  and 
they  will  be  preparing  benedictions  for  their  dying  hour 
and  everlasting  rewards;  and  if  Satan  really  did  burn 
that  Tabernacle  down,  as  some  people  say  he  did,  he 
will  find  it  the  poorest  job  he  ever  undertook. 

Good-bye,  old  Tabernacle !  your  career  short  but  bless- 
ed; your  ashes  precious  in  our  sight.  In  the  last  day, 
may  we  be  able  to  meet  the  songs  there  sung,  and  the 
prayers  there  offered,  and  the  sermons  there  preached. 
Good-bye,  old  place,  where  some  of  us  first  felt  the  Gos- 


132  THINGS  NOT  BURNED   UP. 

pel  peace,  and  others  heard  the  last  message  ere  they  fled 
away  into  the  skies!  Good-bye,  Brooklyn  Tabernacle 
of  1870  !  But  welcome  our  new  church  (I  see  it  as  plain- 
ly as  though  it  were  already  built) !  Your  walls  firmer ; 
your  gates  wider;  your  songs  more  triumphant;  your 
ingatherings  more  glorious.  Eise  out  of  the  ashes,  and 
greet  our  waiting  vision !  Burst  on  our  souls,  oh  day 
of  our  church's  resurrection  !  By  your  altars,  may  we  be 
prepared  for  the  hour  when  the  fire,  shall  try  every  man's 
work  of  what  sort  it  is.  Welcome,  Brooklyn  Tabernacle 
of  1873 ! 


WICKUDNJESi)  /xV  BIGK  PLACES.  133 


WICKEDNESS  IN  HIGH  PLACES. 

*' Their  right  hand  is  full  of  bribes." — Psalm  xxvi.,  10. 
"Woe  to  thee,  O  land,  when  thy  king  is  a  child,  and  thy  princes  eat  in 
the  morning." — Ecclesiastes  x.,  16. 

THOSE  two  passages  are  descriptive  of  wickedness 
in  high  places.  The  morals  of  a  nation  hardly  ever 
rise  higher  than  the  virtue  of  the  rulers.  Henry  YIII. 
makes  impurity  national  and  popular.  William  Wilber- 
force  in  the  Parliament  is  perpetual  elevation  to  an  em- 
pire. Sin,  epauleted  and  bestarred,  comes  to  respect  and 
canonization  ;  vice,  elevated,  is  recommended.  Malarias 
rise  from  the  marsh,  float  upward  and  away ;  but  moral 
distempers  descend  from  the  mountain  to  the  plain.  The 
"Five  Points"  and  Coal  Street  disgust  men  with  the  bes- 
tiality of  sin ;  but  dissolute  French  court  and  corrupt 
Congressional  delegation  put  a  premium  upon  crime. 
The  most  of  the  vices  of  the  world  are  kingly  exiles  that 
had  a  throne  once,  but,  driven  out,  they  have  come  down 
in  tattered  robes  to  be  entertained  by  the  humble  and 
the  insignificant. 

I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  nation  on  earth 
"which  has  more  noble-minded  and  pure-hearted  men  in 
places  of  authority  than  this  nation.  There  is  not  a 
meetinsf  of  Leoislature  or  Cons-ress  or  Cabinet  but*  has 
in  it  tlie  best  specimens  of  Christian  character — men 
whose  hands  would  consume  a  bribe ;  whose  cheek  has 
never  been  flushed  with  intoxication;  whose  lips  have 


134  WICKEDNESS  IN  HIGH  PLACES. 

never  been  smitten  of  blasphemy,  or  stung  of  a  lie ;  men 
whose  speeches  against  the  wrong  and  in  behalf  of  the 
right  make  us  think  of  the  fiery  words  of  the  Scotch 
Covenanters,  and  of  the  daring  challenge  of  Martin  Lu- 
ther, and  of  the  red  lightning  of  Micah  and  Habakkuk. 
I  do  not  believe  that  our  legislative  and  political  coun- 
cils are  any  more  corrupt  than  they  were  in  olden  time. 
I  will  not  believe  it  so  long  as  I  read  in  history  of  Aaron 
Burr,  stuffed  with  corruption  until  he  could  hold  no 
more — body,  mind,  and  soul  soaked  in  abomination,  the 
debaucher  of  the  debauched,  yet  a  member  of  the  State 
Legislature,  afterward  Attorney-general,  afterward  Uni- 
ted States  Senator,  and,  last  of  all,  Vice-president  of  the 
Union.  You  can  not  make  me  believe  that  political  dis- 
honesty is  peculiar  to  our  day  when  I  find  out  that  the 
governor  of  this  very  State,  almost  fifty  years  ago,  dis- 
banded the  Legislature  because  it  was  too  corrupt  to 
sit  in  council ;  and  when,  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts, 
there  was  a  man  in  the  gubernatorial  chair  so  offensive 
that  when  he  made  his  proclamation  for  Thanksgiving- 
day,  ending  with  his  own  signature  as  governor,  and  the 
stereotyped  phrase,  "God  save  the  Commonwealth,"  a 
minister  of  Christ,  while  reading  the  Governor's  procla- 
mation for  Thanksgiving,  put  this  emphasis  after  read- 
ing the  proclamation,  saying,  "Marcus  Morton,  Governor 
of  Massachusetts?     Ood  save  the  Commonivealih T 

There  has  been  a  tendency  to  contrast  the  past  with 
the  present,  to  the  advantage  of  the  former;  and  I  sup- 
pose that  sixty  years  from  now  political  writers  will 
make  angels  out  of  us,  although  the  material  now  seems 
so  very  unpromising.  But  the  crimes  in  high  places  in 
olden  times  are  no  apology  for  the  crimes  in  high  places 


WICKEDNESS  JN  HIQH  PLACES  135 

in  modern  times;  and  I  shall  this  morning,  in  the  fear 
of  Grod,  and  with  reference  to  my  last  account,  unroll  be- 
fore you  the  scroll  of  public  wickedness. 

If  there  was  ever  a  time  when  the  minister  of  the  Gos- 
pel and  the  philanthropist  should  speak  out,  this  is  the 
time.  King  David  must  feel  the  rebuke  of  Nathan; 
Felix  must  be  made  to  tremble ;  sin  must  be  denounced ; 
God  must  be  honored ;  tbe  nation  must  be  saved.  We 
may  hold  back  the  truth  on  these  subjects,  and  walk  with 
muffled  feet  lest  we  wake  up  some  big  sinner.  But  what 
will  we  answer  in  the  day  when  men  who  have  stood  in 
the  high  places  of  the  earth,  warring  against  God,  shall 
fall  like  lightning  from  heaven  ?  or,  as  John  Milton  has  it: 

"  Hurled  headlong  flaming  from  the  ethereal  sky, 
With  hideous  ruin  and  combustion,  down 
To  bottomless  perdition." 

I  stand  this  morning  in  the  presence  of  men  who  hold 
in  their  hands  the  suffrages  of  the  nation,  and  by  whose 
vote,  and  by  whose  printing-press,  and  by  whose  social 
influence,  and  by  whose  prayer,  the  future  character  of 
this  country  is  to  be  decided. 

In  unrolling,  then,  this  scroll  of  wickedness  in  high 
places,  the  first  thing  that  I  mark  especially  is  incompe- 
iency  for  office.  If  a  man  seek  for  a  place  and  win  it 
when  he  is  incompetent,  he  is  committing  a  crime  against 
God  and  a  crime  against  man.  It  is  not  a  sin  for  me  to 
be  ignorant  of  medical  science ;  but  if,  without  medical 
attainment,  I  set  myself  up  among  professional  men,  and 
trifle,  in  my  ignorance,  with  the  lives  of  those  whose  con- 
fidence I  have  won,  then  my  charlatanism  becomes  high- 
handed knavery.     The  ignorance  that  in  the  one  case 

6* 


136  WICKEDNESS  IN  HIGH  PLACES. 

was  innocence,  in  the  other  case  becomes  a  crime.  It  is 
not  a  sin  for  me  to  be  ignorant  of  machinery;  but  if  I 
attempt  to  engineer  a  steamer  across  the  Atlantic,  amidst 
darkness  and  hurricane,  holding  the  lives  of  hundreds  of 
people  in  mj  grasp,  then  the  blood  of  all  the  shipwrecked 
is  on  mj  garment.  But  what  shall  we  say  of  men  who 
attempt  to  engineer  our  State  and  national  affairs  over 
the  rough  waters,  without  the  first  element  of  qualifica- 
tion ? — men  not  knowing  enough  to  vote  "  aye"  or  "  no," 
until  they  have  looked  for  the  wink  of  others  of  their 
party?  So  we  have  had  Legislative  and  Congressional 
committees  to  make  tariffs  and  homestead  bills,  and  ar- 
range about  the  fisheries,  and  think  out  the  best  way 
of  collecting  indemnities — men  whose  incompetency  has 
been  the  laughing-stock  of  the  country.  In  this  coun- 
try, to-day,  qualification  for  office  is  not  the  question,  but 
"How  much  has  the  man  done  for  the  party?"  And  so 
we  had  a  Congressional  committee  that  made  one  tariff 
for  flaxseed-oil  and  another  for  linseed-oil — not  knowing, 
in  their  stupidity,  that  flaxseed  and  linseed  oil  are  the 
same  thing.  No  depth  or  length  or  breadth  of  disqualifi- 
cation in  this  country  hinders  a  man  from  holding  office. 
The  polished  civilian  of  acknowledged  integrity,  pro- 
foundly acquainted  with  the  spirit  of  our  institutions,  is 
run  over  by  the  great  stampede  of  men  who  rush  out  from 
their  bloated  and  unthinking  ignorance  to  take  the  posi- 
tions of  trust  in  this  country.  So  we  have  had,  in  some 
parts  of  the  countrj^,  school-commissioners  nominated  in  a 
grog-shop,  hurraed  for  by  the  rabble,  hardly  able  to  read 
their  own  commissions  when  they  were  handed  to  them; 
judges  of  courts  in  important  cases  giving  the  charge 
with  so  much  inaccuracy  of  phraseology  that  the  thief 


WICKEDNESS  IX  HIGH  PLACES.  137 

ii,  tdQ  prisoner's-box  was  more  amused  at  the  stupidity 
of  the  bencli  than  alarmed  at  his  own  prospective  punish- 
ment. We  arraign,  to-da}^,  incapacity  for  office  as  one  of 
the  crimes  to  be  seen  in  our  national  and  State  councils. 
I  unroll  the  scroll  a  little  farther,  and  find  intemper- 
ance and  the  co-ordinate  crimes.  I  admit  there  has  been 
some  improvement  in  this  thing.  The  grog-shop  that 
used  to  flourish  in  the  basement  of  the  Capitol,  where 
senators  once  went  to  get  inspiration  for  their  speeches, 
has  been  abolished.  There  is  a  temperance  society  in 
Congress.  But  the  plague  is  not  yet  stayed.  I  knew  a 
man  who,  only  a  few  years  ago,  was  an  example  of  in- 
tegrity, and  honored  everywhere.  Last  winter  I  went 
to  Washington.  I  had  not  seen  him  for  3^ears,  and  I 
thought  I  would  send  my  card  into  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, and  call  him  out.  The  card  went  in  by  the 
sergeant-at-arms,  and  my  old  friend  that  I  had  not  seen 
in  ten  years  came  out  staggering  drunk.  In  this  countrj^, 
the  temptations  to  intemperance  in  public  life  are  so  great 
that  more  of  our  men  in  office  die  o^  delirium  tremens^  and 
the  kindred  diseases  that  come  from  intemperance  and 
an  impure  life,  than  from  all  the  other  causes  combined. 
There  is  one  weapon  that  slays  more  senators  and  con- 
gressmen and  legislators  and  common  councilmen  than 
any  other,  and  that  is  the  bottle.  How  few  of  the  men 
who  were  in  prominent  political  offices  twenty-five  or 
thirty  years  ago,  when  they  died,  came  to  honorable 
graves !  The  family  physician,  to  relieve  the  family  and 
keep  them  from  national  disgrace,  said  it  was  gout,  or  it 
was  epilepsj",  or  it  was  obstruction  of  the  liver,  or  it  was 
exhaustion  from  patriotic  services !  But  God  knew  it  was 
whisky.     It  was  the  same  habit  that  smote  the  great  man 


138  WICKEDNESS  IN  HIGH  PLACES. 

down  that  smote  the  dark  villain  in  the  alley.  The  one 
you  wrapped  up  in  a  coarse  cloth,  and  threw  into  a  rough 
coffin,  and  carried  out  in  a  box-wagon,  and  put  down  in 
a  pauper's  grave,  without  prayer  or  benediction  ;  the  oth- 
er gathered  the  pomp  of  the  city,  and  the  name  was  on 
the  silver  plate,  and  lordly  men  walked  uncovered  beside 
the  hearse  with  tossing  plumes,  on  the  way  to  a  grave 
soon  to  be  adorned  with  a  marble  pillar  of  four  sides, 
which  shall  be  covered  with  the  story  of  the  man  who 
died  o^  exhaustion  from  patriotic  services!  The  difference 
between  the  two  was  this:  the  one  put  an  end  to  his  ex- 
istence with  logwood-rum  at  two  cents  a  glass,  and  the 
other  perished  in  a  beverage  at  three  dollars  a  bottle.  I 
write  both  of  their  epitaphs:  on  a  shingle  over  the  pau- 
per's grave  I  write  it  with  a  lead-pencil;  on  the  white 
shaft  over  a  senator's  tomb  I  cut  it  with  a  chisel — ^^  Slain 
by  strong  drink  F'' 

It  is  a  simple  fact  that  dissipated  habits  have  not,  in 
this  country,  been  a  hinderance  to  a  man's  getting  office: 
if  he  be  sober  sometimes  ;  if  the  governor  can  get  straight 
enough  to  write  his  message  ;  if  the  judge's  tongue  is  not 
positively  thick  when  he  delivers  the  charge ;  if  the  vice- 
president  is  not  drunk  when  he  is  sworn  in — that  will 
do.  So  we  have  had  world-renowned  secretaries  of  state 
carried  out  drunk  from  their  office,  and  senators  of  the 
United  States  arrested  at  midnight  in  houses  of  shame 
for  uproarious  behavior;  judges  and  jurors  and  lawyers 
by  night,  while  the  trial  is  going  on  by  day,  gambling 
and  singing  the  song  of  the  drunkard.  Oh,  it  is  a  sad 
thinsj  to  have  a  hand  tremulous  with  intoxication  hold- 
ing  the  scales  of  justice,  when  the  lives  of  men  and  the 
destinies  of  a  nation  are  in  the  balance :  to  have  a  chari- 


WICKEDNESS  IN  HIGH  PLACES.  189 

oteer  witli  unskillful  hands  on  the  reins  while  the  swift 
destinies  of  governments  are  harnessed,  on  a  road  where 
governments  have  been  dashed  to  pieces  and  empires 
have  gone  down  in  darkness  and  woe! 

What  was  it  that  drove  back  your  armies  in  the  last 
war  so  often  ?  Were  your  sons  and  fathers  cowards  and 
poltroons?  ISTo!  It  was  because  so  often  drunkenness 
sat  in  the  saddle.  What  are  those  graves  on  the  heights 
of  Fredericksburg,  as  you  pass  down  to  Eichmond  ? 
Was  it  the  sword  or  the  bottle  that  slew  them?  The 
bottle!  for  that  day  drunkenness  rode  in  some  of  the 
stirrups,  leading  forth  your  sons  and  fathers  to  death. 
Dissipation  in  all  the  high  circles  as  well  as  the  low.  A 
trial  in  the  courts  ever  and  anon  reveals  the  fact  that 
Impurity  walks  in  robes,  and  dances  under  the  palatial 
chandelier,  and  drowses  on  the  damask  upholstery.  Sin 
is  tolerable,  if  it  is  only  rich.  Stand  back  and  let  the 
libertine  go  by,  for  he  rides  in  a  three -thousand- dollar 
turn-out.  The  Congressional  galleries  are  thrilled  by 
the  appeals  of  men  who  on  the  following  night  fulfill 
what  Solomon  said,  "He  goeth  after  her  straightway,  as 
an  ox  to  the  slauo-hter  and  as  a  fool  to  the  correction  of 
stocks,  until  a  dart  strike  through  his  liver."  Mean- 
while, political  parties  are  silent,  lest  they  lose  votes;  and 
newspapers  are  quiet,  lest  they  lose  subscribers  ;  and  min- 
isters of  the  Gospel  are  still,  lest  some  affluent  pew-hold- 
er should  be  disgusted.  But  God's  indignation  gathers 
like  the  fiery  flashes  around  the  edges  of  a  blackening 
cloud  just  before  the  swoop  of  a  tornado.  His  voice 
sounds  through  this  country  to-day,  in  the  words  of  the 
text:  "Woe  unto  thee,  0  land,  when  thy  king  is  a  child, 
and  thy  princes  drink  in  the  morning."     Oh,  the  land 


140  WICKEDNESS  IN  HIGH  PLACES. 

groans  to  be  delivered  !  It  sweats  great  drops  of  blood ! 
It  is  crucified  —  not  between  two  thieves,  but  between 
a  thousand,  while  the  nations  ride  past,  wagging  their 
heads  and  crj'ing,  "Aha!  aha!" 

I  unroll  the  scroll  of  wickedness  in  high  places  still 
farther,  and  I  see  the  crime  of  bribery.  It  was  that 
which  corrupted  Lord  Bacon  in  his  magnificent  position 
— it  was  that  which  led  Chief-justice  Thorpe  to  the  gal* 
lows.  You  know  as  well  as  I  that  in  the  past  few  years 
it  has  been  almost  impossible  to  get  a  law  passed  by 
State  or  National  Legislature  unless  there  was  some 
financial  consideration.  When  a  bill  has  appeared  at 
the  door,  the  question  among  your  representatives  has 
been,  "How  much  money  is  in  this?"  Reformers  and 
philanthropists,  with  some  scheme  for  the  elevation  of 
the  nation,  approach  the  door  of  the  Legislature,  or  the 
door  of  Congress,  and  are  laughed  at  because  their  hands 
are  empty.  Political  bribes,  offered  in  the  shape  of  pre- 
ferment for  office :  "  If  you  vote  so  and  so,  you  shall 
have  so  and  so."  "If  you  will  vote  for  my  bill  giving 
a  monopoly  to  my  moneyed  institution,  then  I  will  vote 
for  your  bill  giving  a  monopoly  to  your  moneyed  insti- 
tution." "  Here  is  a  bill  with  which  we  shall  have  a 
great  deal  of  trouble,  but  it  must  go  through.  Crowd 
the  lobbies  with  railroad  men,  and  manufacturers,  and 
contractors.  Make  an  entertainment  for  the  members, 
and  when  they  are  good  and  drunk,  have  them  promise 
to  vote  that  way.  Put  a  thousand  dollars  or  five  thou- 
sand dollars  in  the  hand  of  this  man,  who  will  be  pru- 
dent in  the  disLiibution  of  it.  Put  two  thousand  dollars 
in  the  hand  of  this  man,  v^io  will  see  that  'it  does  good.' 
Be  very  cautious  how  you   approach  men.     Now  we 


WICKEDNESS  IN  HIGH  PLACES.  141 

want  only  four  more  votes,  and  this  matter  will  be  all 
right.  Give  a  thousand  dollars  to  that  very  intelligent 
member  from  Westchester.  Give  five  hundred  dollars 
to  that  stupid  member  from  Ulster.  Now  we  have  but 
two  more  votes  to  regulate.  Give  three  hundred  dollars 
to  this  man,  and  he  will  be  sick  and  stay  at  home,  and 
then  give  three  hundred  to  this  man,  and  he  will  go  to 
the  bedside  of  his  great-aunt  languishing  in  her  last  sick- 
ness !"  The  day  for  the  passage  of  the  bill  has  come. 
The  speaker  thumps  his  gavel  on  the  desk  and  says, 
"  Senators,  are  you  ready  for  the  question  ?  All  in  fa- 
vor of  this  bill  that  wnll  vote  one  or  two  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars,  or  a  million  dollars,  into  the  hands  of  un- 
principled speculators,  will  say.  Aye."  Aye!  aye!  aye! 
aye !  "All  opposed,  No."  "  The  ayes  have  it."  The 
money  is  wasted,  the  public  treasure  is  gone,  business 
is  embarrassed,  and  our  National  and  State  Legislatures 
become  the  sewers  into  which  the  filth  and  the  vomit  of 
this  nation  empty  themselves.  If  you  think  that  I  ex- 
aggerate the  matter,  go  to  any  of  these  places  just  be- 
fore a  bill  is  to  be  passed,  and  learn  that  I  have  not 
more  than  half  represented  the  truth  in  the  case,  and 
that  this  crime  of  bribery  is  smiting  the  whole  country, 
depleting  your  wealth,  oh,  you  men  of  affluence!  grind- 
ing harder  your  faces,  oh,  you  children  of  the  poor! 

The  Democratic  party  filled  its  cup  of  iniquity  before 
it  went  out  of  power  at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  The 
Republican  party  came  along,  and  as  it  had  more  oppor- 
tunity, by  reason  of  the  contracts,  filled  its  cup  of  iniquity 
in  shorter  time;  and  there  they  are,  two  carcasses  lying 
side  by  side — the  Republican  party  and  the  Democratic 
party — putrefied  until  they  have  no  more  power  to  rot! 


142  WICKEDNESS  IN  HIGH  PLACES. 

The  bribery  during  the  war  is  cursing  us  yet,  and  I  fear 
will  curse  us  for  a  century.  You  know  how  it  was  then. 
"  If  you  give  me  the  contract  above  all  others  who  apply 
for  it,  I'll  give  you  ten  per  cent,  of  the  profits.  If  you 
will  only  pass  these  worn-out  cavalry  horses  and  certify 
that  they  are  fit  for  service,  I'll  give  you  five  thousand 
dollars  bonus."  "Bonus"  was  the  word.  So  it  went 
down  to  your  sons  and  fathers  in  the  army — rice  that  was 
worm-eaten,  crackers  that  were  mouldy,  garments  that 
were  shoddy,  meat  that  was  rank,  horses  that  stumbled  in 
the  charge,  tents  that  sifted  the  rain  into  the  faces  of  the 
exhausted.     But  it  was  all  right,  for  they  got  the  bonus! 

The  argument  in  behalf  of  the  stability  of  republics  is 
stronger  in  my  mind  now  than  it  ever  was.  If  our  Gov- 
ernment had  not  been  thoroughly  established,  all  this 
bribery  and  theft  and  outrage  would  have  swamped  it 
forever.  The  amount  of  money  that  has  been  spent  in 
this  country  in  railroads  that  ought  never  to  have  been 
constructed,  in  canals  that  ought  never  to  have  been  dug, 
in  loans  that  ought  never  to  have  been  allowed,  in  fiirci- 
cal  scliemes  that  ought  never  to  have  been  countenanced, 
would  have  swamped  any  three  monarchies. 

We  sit  to-day,  this  whole  nation,  under  the  shadow  of 
Congressional  dishonor.  The  white  marble  of  our  beau- 
tiful Capitol  has  become  the  vast  mausoleum  of  the  slain. 
Both  political  parties  implicated.  The  stables  of  Augeas, 
uncleaned  after  three  thousand  oxen  had  stood  there  for 
thirty  years,  was  a  small  job  for  Hercules,  compared  with 
what  the  Poland  Committee  found  of  national  dirt  in  the 
Congressional  halls.  On  that  Union  Pacific  Railroad 
many  of  your  representatives  took  a  through  ticket  to 
hell.     They  paid  their  fare  in  eighty  per  cent,  dividends. 


WICKEDNESS  IN  HIGH  PLACES.  143 

Thej  sold  out  political  influence,  honor,  Christian  princi- 
ple, and  immortal  soul.  But  be  careful,  my  friends,  lest 
you  smite  the  innocent  with  the  guilty.  I  think  the  na- 
tion is  on  the  track  of  some  men  who  have  not  been 
proven  guilty.  We  take  men  to  be  innocent  until  they 
are  found  villainous.  I  can  not  believe  that  men,  after  thir- 
ty years  of  integrity,  amidst  temptations  where  the}^  might 
have  made  millions  of  dollars,  would  now  sell  heaven 
for  a  few  hundred.  A  solid  column  of  defamers  reach- 
ing from  Biooklyn  to  Washington,  with  uplifted  hand  in 
solemn  oath,  could  not  make  me  believe  that  some  of  the 
men  arraigned  are  iniquitous.  But,  my  friends,  we  must 
admit  that  this  nation  sits  to-day  in  the  shadow  of  na- 
tional dishonor  and  Congressional  disgrace.  The  crimes 
found  in  public  places  are  only  the  index  of  political 
abandonment.  The  blotches  on  the  surface  only  show 
the  disease  within.  I  do  not  believe  the  men  inculpated 
in  public  places  to-day  are  any  worse  than  thousands  of 
the  political  hucksters  who  in  your  legislatures  and  your 
congresses  have  been  bought  up  by  moneyed  institutions. 
Some  of  the  finest  houses  ever  built  on  Fifth  Avenue, 
and  Beacon  Street,  and  Eittenhouse  Square,  have  been 
built  out  of  money  paid  for  votes  by  railroad  companies 
in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Massa- 
chusetts. I  was  glad  when  the  explosion  came.  Pub- 
lic men  will  see  that  they  must  beware,  since  there  are 
thunders  on  the  track,  and  God  has  said  that  he  "will 
wound  the  hairy  scalp  of  him  who  goeth  on  still  in  his 
trespasses."  You  throw  up  your  hands  and  say,  "Why, 
we  can't  help  it."  Can  you  not?  If  I  thought  there 
was  nothing  for  you  and  me  to  do,  I  would  not  preach 
this  sermon.     There  are  four  things  for  you  to  do. 


144  WICKEDNESS  IN  HIGH  PLACES. 

First,  stand  off  from  all  political  office  unless  your 
own  principles  are  thoroughly  siittlcd.  Do  not  go  into 
the  blaze  of  temptation  unless  you  are  fire -proof. 
Common  council,  water-board,  legislative  hall,  and  con- 
gressional assemblage  have  been  the  damnation  of  a 
great  many  respectable  people.  But  if  you  go  into 
political  life  without  your  principles  thoroughly  settled, 
before  you  get  through  with  it  you  will  drink,  and  you 
will  swear,  and  you  will  lie,  and  you  will  take  bribes. 
"Ah!"  you  say,  "that  is  not  complimentary."  Well,  I 
always  was  clumsy  at  compliments. 

The  second  thing  to  do  is  to  take  the  counsel  of  Paul, 
and  pray  for  your  rulers ;  pray  for  all  in  authority.  Do 
you  know  that  Shadrach  and  Abed-nego  did  not  need 
the  Son  of  God  beside  them  in  the  fire  so  much  as  your 
rulers  do?  We  pray  every  Sunday  for  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  because  that  is  in  the  liturgy.  But 
have  we  been  editirely  cleared  of  all  responsibility  for 
the  national  corruption,  from  the  fact  that  we  have  not 
prayed  as  we  should  for  our  representatives?  When  I 
take  up  the  paper  and  see  this  awful  defalcation  in  char- 
acter, I  feel  just  as  I  did  when  I  saw  the  account  of  the 
wreck  of  the  Northfleet  a  few  nights  ngo  in  English  wa- 
ters— the  Northfleet  run  down  by  a  strong  steamer;  for 
those  men  were  crashed  into  by  temptations,  with  fiery 
furnace  and  thundering  wheel-bucket;  and  there  was  no 
life-boat.     Pray  for  your  rulers! 

In  the  next  place,  be  faithful  at  the  ballot-box.  Do 
not  stand  on  your  dignity  and  refuse  to  vote  because  the 
rabble  go.  Put  on  your  old  clothes,  and  elbow  3^our 
way  through  the  unwashed,  and  the  wretched,  and  the 
abandoned,  and  go  to  the  polls.     Cast  your  own  vote. 


WICKEDNESS  IN  HIGH  PLACES.  145 

Make  up  your  mind  in  a  Cbi'istian  way  as  to  who  are 
the  men  best  for  office;  then  vote  for  the  man  who  loves 
God  and  hates  rum,  and  believes  in  having  the  Bible 
read  every  day  as  long  as  the  world  stands  in  all  our 
common  schools.  Refuse  to  vote,  or  vote  the  wrong 
way,  and  you  sin  against  the  graves  of  the  men  who 
died  for  the  Government,  and  you  sin  against  your  chil- 
dren, who  may  live  to  feel  the  curse  of  your  negligence 
or  3^our  political  dishonesty. 

But  I  have  a  better  prescription  than  all.  It  is  the  fiL 
fourth  thing  I  have  to  say  in  the  way  of  counsel,  and  T- 
that  is.  Evangelize  tJie  2:>eo2:)le.  Gospelize  this  country, 
and  you  will  have  pure  representatives  and  pure  men 
everywhere.  I  have  no  faith  in  the  conversion  of  an 
old  politician.  I  never  knew  one  to  be  converted.  I 
suppose  the  grace  of  God  can  do  it,  but  seldom  tries  it. 
I  should  be  no  more  surprised  to  see  the  Pope  of  Rome 
and  the  cardinals  come  in  and  sit  down  on  the  "anx- 
ious-seat" in  a  Methodist  meetinsf-house  than  I  would 
to  see  a  long  row  of  politicians  converted.  What  work 
we  have  to  do  we  are  to  do  with  the  great  masses  of  the 
people  who  cast  the  votes,  and  with  our  children  who 
are  coming  up  to  be  the  sovereigns.  That  woman  who 
this  afternoon,  in  the  Sabbath -school  class,  teaches  six 
boys  how  to  be  Christians,  does  more  for  our  political 
future  than  all  the  fine  essays  that  were  ever  written 
about  the  Constitution,  or  the  arraignment  of  the  Amer- 
ican Senate  for  holding  stock  of  the  Credit  Mobilier.  I 
want  you  to  understand  there  is  w^ork  for  you  and  me 
to  do.  Change  men's  hearts,  and  their  lives  will  be  right.  fj^> 
There  were  good  men  this  last  week  in  Cooper  Institute, 
New  York,  trying  to  have  the  Christian  religion  recog- 


146  WICKEDNESS  IN  HIOH  PLACES. 

nized  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  But,  my 
friends,  you  get  the  people  converted  by  the  grace  of 
God,  and  I  do  not  care  about  the  mere  technicality  of  a 
Constitutional  recognition.  What  we  want  in  this  coun- 
try is  just  four  revivals — revivals  that  come  like  those 
in  the  days  of  Nettleton  and  Jonathan  Edwards  and 
George  Whitefield.  We  want  four  revivals  all  at  once: 
one  starting  from  the  North,  rolling  South ;  one  starting 
from  the  South,  rolling  North;  one  starting  from  the 
East,  rolling  West;  one  starting  from  the  West,  rolling 
East.  And  then  I  want  to  stand  on  the  spot  where  the 
four  seas  meet,  that  I  may  shout,  "  Hallelujah !  for  the 
Lord  God  omnipotent  reigneth.  Hallelujah!  for  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world  are  becoming  the  kingdoms  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  But  remember,  that  if  there  be 
forty  millions  of  people  in  this  country,  upon  you  person- 
ally rests  a  forty-millionth  of  the  responsibility.  The 
least  thing  you  can  do  for  the  country  is  to  contribute 
toward  it  a  heart  changed  by  the  grace  of  God,  and  a  life 
all  pure.  Eemember  that  it  is  net  as  nations  we  are  at 
last  to  be  judged,  but  as  individuals,  each  man  answering 
for  himself  in  that  day  when  monarchies  and  republics 
alike  shall  perish,  and  the  earth  itself  shall  become  a  heap 
of  ashes,  scattered  in  the  blast  of  the  nostrils  of  the  Lord 
God  Almighty  I 


THE  FOURTH  ANNIVERi^ARY.  147 


THE  FOUETH  ANNIVERSARY. 

"He  thanked  God,  and  took  courage." — Acts  xxviii.,  15. 

PAUL  had  just  come  ashore  at  Puteoli,  and  was  soon 
to  go  across  the  country  to  Rome,  to  meet,  perhaps, 
a  great  many  trials  and  perplexities.  The  Christians  at 
Rome  hear  that  Paul  has  landed  at  Puteoli  and  is  on  the 
way,  so  they  go  out  to  escort  him  to  the  city.  When  he 
saw  them,  his  heart  revived,  or,  as  my  text  says,  "  He 
thanked  God,  and  took  courage."  That  is  descriptive  of 
my  own  feelings  this  morning.  You  may  not  be  aware 
that  this  is  the  anniversary  of  my  settlement  as  the 
pastor  of  this  church.  Fifty-two  times  the  shuttle  has 
flown,  in  each  flight  weaving  a  week,  with  a  golden  bor- 
der of  Sabbath.  Three  hundred  and  sixty-four  times 
the  clock  has  struck  twelve  for  the  noon  and  twelve  for 
the  night.  In  that  time,  how  many  marriage  garlands 
have  been  twisted,  how  many  graves  dug,  how  many 
sorrows  suffered,  how  many  fortunes  won,  how  many 
souls  lost,  how  many  immortals  saved ! 

Four  years  ago,  this  month,  I  came  to  you  with  chas- 
tened spirit,  for  only  the  Sabbath  before  I  had  delivered 
my  valedictory  sermon  in  Philadelphia,  and  the  sharp 
laceration  of  soul  which  I  felt  that  Sabbath-night  as, 
standing  at  the  foot  of  the  pulpit,  I  bade  ftirewell  to 
long -tried  friends,  many  of  them  my  own  children  in 
the  Gospel,  can  be  appreciated  only  by  those  who  have 
gone  through  the  same  process.     Coming  here,  I  found 


148  THE  FOURTH  ANNIVERSARY. 

strangers  in  both  boards  of  the  church,  and  a  building 
ahnost  empty.  Still  mj  heart  failed  not,  for  I  was  sure 
that  God  had  called  me  to  the  work,  and,  however  weak 
a  man  may  feel  in  himself,  he  is  strong  while  leaning 
against  the  throne  of  the  Lord  Almighty.  Instead 
of  standing  among  strangers  to-day,  I  look  off  upon  fa- 
miliar faces,  and  upon  those  with  whom  I  have  been 
taking  sweet  counsel,  and  those  whom  I  know  are  re- 
membering me,  day  by  day,  in  their  prayers.  So  I  shall 
address  them  this  morning  as  one  large,  Christian  fam- 
ily. I  have  thought  that  in  this,  my  anniversary  ser- 
mon, it  might  be  well  if  I  should  tell  you  what,  by  the 
help  of  God,  I  have  been  trying  to  do  in  this  congre- 
gation. 

In  the  first  place,  I  remark,  I  have  been  trying  to  win 
your  confidence  and  love,  not  by  sycophancy  or  by  the 
consultation  of  your  prejudices,  but  by  preaching  a 
straightforward  Gospel,  regardless  as  to  where  it  hit. 
A  minister  living  amidst  people  who  do  not  believe  in 
him  can  not  be  useful.  When  a  congregation  wish  that 
their  pastor  would  be  called  to  some  other  position,  he 
really  has  a  call  to  go.  When  they  have  the  idea  that 
he  is  influenced  by  selfish  and  worldly  motives,  his  use- 
fulness is  done,  and  he  as  really  has  a  call  to  go  as  he 
had  a  call  to  come.  There  are  churches  being  depleted 
and  blasted  by  a  ministry  not  adapted  to  them.  A  min- 
ister has  no  more  right  to  kill  a  church  than  a  church 
has  a  right  to  kill  a  minister.  I  know  a  man  who  pro- 
fesses to  be  a  minister  of  Christ,  who  is  in  his  third  set- 
tlement. The  two  previous  churches  that  he  served 
have  come  to  extinction  as  the  result  of  that  ministry, 
and  there  is  not  much  prospect  that  the  third  will  long 


THE  FOURTH  ANNIVERSARY.  149 

survive;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  ministers 
of  Christ  who  have  for  thirty  and  forty  years  stood  in 
the  same  places,  and  the  tie  of  affection  and  confidence 
between  pastor  and  people  has  all  the  time  strengthened. 

A  good  many  years  ago,  a  lad,  fifteen  years  of  age, 
heard,  in  England,  John  Flavel  preach  from  the  text : 
"  If  any  man  love  not  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  let  him  be 
Anathema  Maranatha."  The  lad  grew  up,  came  to  this 
country,  and  lived  to  be  one  hundred  years  of  age,  not 
having  found  Christ.  One  day  he  stood  in  the  field, 
and  the  memory  of  that  sermon  of  John  Flavel  crossed 
his  mind,  and  the  thought  of  how  that  minister  of  Christ, 
at  the  close  of  the  service,  said:  "How  can  I  pronounce 
the  benediction,  when  there  may  be  some  here  who  love 
not  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  are  Anathema  Mara- 
natha." The  remembrance  of  that  minister  brought  the 
old  man  to  Christ  at  one  hundred  years  of  age,  and 
eighty-five  years  after  he  had  heard  that  Gospel  sermon. 
Oh !  it  is  a  grand  thing  to  preach  earnestly,  faithfully, 
and  successfully  this  glorious  Gospel.  Kow  let  me  be 
frank,  and  say  to  you,  my  dear  people,  that  I  have  tried 
to  win  your  confidence  and  your  deep  sympathy  in  my 
Christian  work.  If  you  have  seen  in  me  many  short- 
comings, be  aware  of  the  fact  that  I  have  had  a  deeper 
realization  of  them  than  you  possibly  could  have  had, 
and  I  am  here  to  say  that  you  have  given  me  more  than 
I  deserve,  and  that  your  kindness  through  the  last  four 
years  has  made  my  ministry  in  this  place  an  undisturbed 
satisfaction. 

I  remark  again,  I  have  tried,  in  my  ministry  during 
the  past  year  and  the  past  four  years,  to  create  amidst 
this  people  Christian  sociality.     There  are  churches  that 


150  THE  FOURTH  ANNIVERSARY. 

are  arctic  seas,  iceberg  grinding  against  iceberg.  The 
attendants  upon  them  come  as  men  come  into  the  ferry- 
boat, sitting  down  beside  each  other — no  nod  of  recogni- 
tion, no  hand-grasping  of  fellowship,  no  throb  of  broth- 
erly and  sisterly  affection.  They  come  in,  they  sit  down, 
they  go  out.  From  Saturday  to  Monday  morning  they 
are  ferried  over  by  Christian  ordinances,  and  that  is  all 
there  is  of  it.  Now,  my  dear  brother,  if  you  are  cold 
and  hard  and  selfish,  then  the  higher  the  wall  you  build 
around  your  soul,  the  better.  You  would  do  well  to  be 
exclusive;  but  if  there  is  in  you  any  thing  kind,  any 
thing  lovely,  any  thing  noble,  any  thing  useful,  let  it 
shine  out.  Suppose  a  vessel  were  driven  on  the  rocks, 
and  while  fifty  people  were  struggling  in  the  surf,  one 
man  gets  safely  to  the  beach,  and  runs  up  to  the  fisher- 
man's hut  and  sits  down  and  warms  himself,  regardless 
of  those  who  are  still  struggling  in  the  water — what  a 
cruel  thing  that  would  be !  How  much  better,  like  the 
survivors  of  the  Atlantic  shipwreck,  toiling  with  both 
hands  until  the  left  hand  gave  out,  and  until  the  right 
hand  gave  out,  and  then  with  their  teeth  seizing  the 
clothing  of  the  suffering  ones  and  pulling  them  ashore! 
And  what  do  you  suppose  God  thinks  of  us  if,  having 
escaped  from  the  floods  of  sin  and  darkness  and  death, 
we  are  culturing  an  unchristian  selfishness,  while  there 
are  hundreds  and  thousands  all  around  about  us  still 
struggling  in  the  wave  ?  I  say,  let  us  have  a  kindly 
sympathy  and  helpfulness  toward  those  who  are  all 
around  us.  Every  church  was  intended  by  God  to  be 
a  large  family  circle — of  fathers  and  mothers,  and  broth- 
ers and  sisters.  What  kind  of  a  family  circle  would 
that  be  where  the  brothers  did  not  recosjnize  each  other^ 


THE  FOURTH  ANNIVERSARY.  151 

and  the  parents  were  characterized  by  frigidity  and 
heartlessness  ?  Sons  and  daughters  of  God,  have  3^oa 
no  higher  appreciation  of  the  larger  Christian  broth- 
erhood in  which  you  are  gathered  in  churches?  Who 
is  that  that  used  to  sit  before  you  in  the  Tabernacle  ? 
Do  not  know.  Who  is  that  that  used  to  sit  at  your  right 
hand  and  at  your  left  hand  ?  Do  not  know.  You  ought 
to  have  known.  It  is  a  sin  not  to  be  acquainted  with 
those  who  sit  by  us  in  the  house  of  God  year  after  year. 
Do  not  stand  upon  the  formalities  of  society.  In  the 
name  of  Christ,  I  declare  to  you  the  privilege  of  giving 
the  right  hand  of  fellowship  to  every  one  who  comes  to 
the  same  church.  We  have  tried  to  culture  this  Chris- 
tian sociality  in  the  sociable ;  much  has  already  been  ac- 
complished, and  when  our  new  church  shall  be  built,  we 
will  put  our  hand  more  earnestly  to  the  work.  The 
church  sociable  ought  to  be  the  most  cheerful  of  all 
places.  Let  there  be  in  it  a  time  to  laugh.  Do  not 
with  long  faces  overshadow  the  young  people.  You  go 
to  church  and  to  the  prayer- meeting  to  worship;  then 
worship,  and  have  nothing  but  worship.  You  go  to  the 
sociable;  then  have  nothing  but  sociality.  Yet  there  are 
church  reunions  so  entirely  formal  that  the  liveliest 
thing  in  all  the  evening  is  the  long- metre  doxology. 
Be  cheerful,  be  kind,  be  sympathetic  with  all  with  whom 
you  are  associated.  If  fish  go  in  schools,  and  if  sheep 
go  in  flocks,  and  if  flowers  go  in  tribes,  and  if  stars  swing 
in  galaxies,  then  let  all  those  who  worship  in  the  same 
church  move  together  in  loving  and  shining  bands. 
*' Behold,  how  good  and  how  pleasant  it  is  for  brethren 
to^dwell  together  in  unity!" 

Again, I  have  tried  in  this  church  to  preach  an  every- 

7 


152  THE  FOURTH  ANNIVERSARY, 

day  religion.  The  vast  majority  of  my  congregation  are 
in  business  life.  It  would  have  been  absurd  for  me  to 
talk  about  abstract  trials  when  I  saw  by  the  paper  that 
gold  was  going  down,  and  men  were  losing  their  fortunes. 
We  must  bring  a  Gospel  comfort  just  suited  to  the  con- 
dition of  the  people  to  whom  we  preach.  Here  is  a  phy- 
sician who  comes  into  a  sick-room  where  there  is  a  case 
of  diphtheria.  Does  he  apply  to  it  medicines  for  chole- 
ra, or  yellow  fever,  or  marasmus  ?  Oh  no,  it  is  a  specific 
for  diphtheria.  And  if  we  want  to  make  the  Gospel  suc- 
cessful in  the  hearts  of  men  in  the  way  of  comfort,  w^e 
must  bring  that  particular  phase  of  it  which  is  thorough- 
ly adapted  to  the  case.  So  I  have  from  time  to  time 
tried  to  bring  you  a  Gospel  that  would  be  appropriate 
in  Wall  Street,  and  in  Broadway,  and  in  Schermerhorn 
Street,  and  in  Montague  Street. 

It  is  a  simple  fact  that  there  are  but  few  men  who  take 
the  comforts  of  religion  into  their  business.  You  get 
sick,  or  a  member  of  your  family  dies;  you  say,  "Send 
for  the  minister!"  But  suppose  you  are  in  a  business 
corner;  suppose  the  sheriff  is  after  you;  suppose  your 
best  friend  betrays  you ;  suppose  there  are  three  or  four 
men  in  the  front  office  with  duns  for  debts  that  you  can 
not  meet ;  suppose  that  you  can  no  more  sleep  at  night 
than  if  you  were  on  the  top  of  a  mast  in  a  Mediterrane- 
an hurricane;  suppose  with  flushed  cheek  you  walk  the 
floor  nights,  your  head  aching  as  though  it  would  split 
open — why,  then,  do  you  not  send  for  religious  consola- 
tion? No,  you  do  not.  You  send  for  some  poor,  mis- 
erable skinflint,  and  ask  him  if  he  will  lend  you  a  thou- 
sand dollars  at  two  per  cent,  a  month,  and  he  will  not  do 
it!     You  go  to  a  friend  you  helped  in  time  of  trouble, 


TEE  FOURTH  ANNIVERSARY.  153 

and  want  to  get  his  name  on  your  note,  and  he  will  not 
give  it,  and  in  utter  despair,  and  wild  with  trouble,  you 
say,  "If  it  were  not  for  my  wife  and  children,  I  would 
jump  off  the  dock."  I  remember  a  man  who,  in  1857, 
helped  a  dozen  people  through  the  financial  straits.  He 
loaned  a  thousand  dollars  here,  and  five  thousand  there, 
and  ten  thousand  there,  and  took  his  friends  to  the  bank, 
and  allowed  them  to  go  on  his  credit,  and  helped  them 
through.  Five  years  after  his  trial  came.  Where  were 
those  old  friends?  Gone ;  or,  if  they  came  into  his  store, 
it  was  only  to  say,  "  God  bless  you !"  forgetful  of  the  fact 
that  one  ounce  of  pure  financial  help  at  that  time  would 
have  been  worth  fifty  tons  of  "God  bless  yous."  In- 
stead of  going  at  such  a  time  to  worldly  resources,  why 
did  you  not  go  to  God?  Why  did  you  not  lock  the 
door  of  your  private  office,  and  get  down  on  your  knees, 
and  say,  "Oh  Lord!  thou  seest  my  business  trouble. 
There  is  that  note  at  the  bank.  I  have  no  money  to 
meet  it.  There  is  my  rent,  it  has  become  due :  what 
shall  I  do  about  it?  There  are  my  unsalable  goods  at 
the  warehouse.  Lord  Jesus,  help  me  out  of  this  trou- 
ble." God  would  have  done  it  as  certainly  as  he  sits 
upon  the  throne  and  offers  help  to  men  who  want  it. 
You  did  not  go  for  it,  and  you  did  not  get  it.  If  you 
had  made  your  religion  do  that,  it  would  have  been 
w^orth  something.  Your  religion,  instead  of  being  a 
robe  to  wrap  around  you  and  keep  you  warm  in  the 
chill  blasts  of  trial,  has  been  merely  a  string  of  beads 
around  your  neck,  very  beautiful  to  look  at,  and  that  is 
all.  In  the  last  panic  in  New  York,  amidst  all  the  ex- 
citement, there  was  a  man  found  in  Wall  Street,  in  his 
back  office,  with  a  loaded  pistol  lying  on  the  table  where 


154  THE  FOURTH  ANNIVMBSART. 

he  was  writing  a  farewell  letter  to  his  family.  What  did 
that  man  most  need  ?  Was  it  the  counsel  of  the  brokers  ? 
The  help  of  the  note-shavers?  No!  He  wanted  the 
comfort  and  the  peace  of  Christ's  religion.  I  have  seen 
a  man  in  a  business  strait  go  through,  sustained  by  the 
grace  of  God.  By  disaster,  in  one  night  his  fortune  all 
went.  When  I  saw  him  before,  he  was  worth  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  dollars;  now  he  was  not  worth  a  far- 
thing. Yet  he  was  counting  up  his  heavenly  treasures. 
If  God  had  knocked  out  the  bottom  of  his  earthly  for- 
tunes, that  bottom  was  found  to  be  the  top  of  the  chest 
in  which  are  the  jewels  of  heaven !  And  if  his  riches 
took  wings  and  flew  away,  in  their  flight  they  met  the 
ravens  of  God  coming  down  to  hungry  Elijah !  That 
man  to-day,  on  a  salary  of  twelve  hundred  dollars  as  a 
clerk  in  the  same  store  over  which  he  had  presided  with 
great  dignity,  is  happier  than  Henry  YIII.  was  on  the 
day  when  Anne  Boleyn  came  to  the  palace — than  Napo- 
leon III.,  at  the  time  of  his  coronation — than  any  man 
who  trusts  in  the  wealth  or  honor  of  this  world  for  his 
chief  satisfaction.  I  expect  the  day  will  come  when  I 
can  set  the  consolations  of  that  Gospel  on  your  counting- 
room  desk ;  under  its  light  the  bank  protests,  and  the 
letters  of  angry  creditors,  reading  like  the  full  title-deed 
to  the  thrones  and  principalities  of  heaven.  That  is 
what  I  call  an  e very-day  religion. 

Again,  I  have  tried  in  these  four  years  in  which  I 
have  been  your  pastor,  to  disjyel  the  cojiventlonalities  of  the 
Church.  There  is  a  tendency  among  Christian  people  to 
walk  in  religious  things  on  ecclesiastical  stilts,  instead  of 
coming  down  upon  a  plain,  common-sense  level.  How 
few  people  talk  religion;  they  whine  about  it  I     What 


THE  FOURTH  ANNIVERSABT.  155 

cbarm  is  there  for  a  wide-awake,  warm-hearted,  enthu- 
siastic man  amidst  the  cold  formalities  of  the  Church  of 
God  ?  He  sees  through  them  ;  he  sees  they  are  a  sham. 
Fiiday  morning,  you  go  into  a  merchant's  store  and  buy 
a  bill  of  hosiery.  How  his  face  lights  up !  How  cheer- 
ful he  is!  How  fascinating  he  is  while  he  is  selling  the 
bill  of  goods !  You  go  away,  saying,  "  That  is  one  of  the 
most  agreeable  men  I  ever  met  in  my  life."  That  very 
Friday  evening  you  go  into  the  prayer-meeting  where 
that  same  Christian  merchant  worships,  and  you  find  him 
getting  up  and  recommending  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ 
with  a  funereal  countenance  and  a  doleful  phraseology, 
enough  to  make  an  undertaker  burst  into  tears.  How 
few  people  there  are  who  talk  cheerfully  about  the  relig- 
ion of  Jesus !  In  other  words,  that  man  of  whom  I  spoke 
had  more  exhilaration  when  he  was  selling  a  bill  of 
goods  than  in  recommending  the  religion  which  makes 
ail  heaven  ring  with  the  anthems  of  the  free.  Now, 
ought  that  so  to  be?  How  many  are  driven  from  the 
doors  of  the  churches  by  the  simple  reason  that  they  do 
not  want  such  a  repulsive  religion.  They  are  afraid  to 
shake  hands  with  a  Christian  man,  lest  they  shall  be  re- 
ligiously assaulted.  I  remember  very  well  how  it  was 
when  I  was  a  boy.  I  laid  one  hour  and  a  half  under  the 
raspberry-bushes  in  the  garden,  to  escape  from  the  min- 
ister and  the  elder  who  came  to  my  father's  house  on  a 
family  visit;  and  my  father  came  out  on  the  back  steps, 
and  cried,  "  De  Witt,  where  are  you  ?"  De  Witt  made 
no  answer!  Ought  our  religion  to  repel  or  attract?  My 
little  child,  four  years  old,  said  to  her  mother:  "Ma,  ma, 
I  saw  in  a  book  a  picture  of  a  man  and  a  picture  of  God, 
and  the  man  looked  awfully  frightened  because  he  saw 


156  THE  FOURTH  ANNIVERSARY. 

God.  Now,"  she  says,  "if  I  had  been  there  and  God  had 
come  in,  I  would  not  have  been  frightened;  I  would 
have  just  gone  right  up  and  put  my  arms  around  his 
neck  and  kissed  him."  Well,  I  thought  that  was  pretty 
good  theology.  In  other  words,  religion  ought  to  in- 
vite our  caresses,  instead  of  driving  the  world  howling 
away,  as  though  it  were  something  disagreeable,  repul- 
sive, and  to  be  hated. 

Again,  I  have,  in  these  four  years  in  which  I  have 
ministered  to  you,  tried  to  preach  a  Gospel  of  comfort  to 
the  bereaved.  This  is  the  most  delicate  work  to  which  the 
preacher  is  ever  called.  If  you  do  not  know  how  to 
treat  a  wound,  you  had  better  not  touch  it.  How  many 
people  come  to  the  wounds  of  the  soul  with  a  spiritual 
quackery,  and  they  irritate  and  poison  the  wounds  in- 
stead of  care.  It  may  require  no  great  skill  to  take  a 
sloop  across  the  North  Eiver,  but  it  does  to  engineer  a 
steamship  across  the  Atlantic  ;  and  there  may  be  no  great 
skill  required  to  heal  a  little  sorrow  of  the  soul,  but  to 
take  one  through  the  storms  and  tossing  seas  of  tribula- 
tion and  trial  does  require  some  tact,  and  ingenuity,  and 
especial  grace.  I  do  not  suppose  that  in  the  four  years 
in  which  I  have  ministered  to  you  a  single  family  has 
escaped  bereavement — if  not  in  your  immediate  circle, 
then  in  a  near  circle.  Oh !  how  many  households  have 
been  broken  up  by  bereavement  since  I  came  among 
you.  From  most  other  sorrows  you  can  run  away.  You 
can  go  home,  but  how  if  a  part  of  the  home  itself  is  gone? 
Then  it  is  not  so  easy.  Then  every  thing  reminds  you 
of  your  loss.  Suppose  you  should  sit  down  at  a  piano, 
put  a  piece  of  music  on  the  rack,  then  put  your  foot  on 
the  pedal  and  your  fingers  on  the  keys — the  music  would 


THE  FOUBTH  ANNIVEESART.  157 

start  off  magnificently.  But  suppose  you  struck  one  key 
and  the  chord  did  not  respond,  because  it  was  broken. 
Why,  that  ruins  the  entire  accompaniment.  Well,  some- 
times in  life  you  have  been  going  on  in  great  joy  and 
hilarity,  when  suddenly  you  have  thought  of  a  voice, 
just  one  voice,  that  has  been  hushed,  of  one  heart  that  is 
slill,  and  the  silent  key  spoiled  all  the  music. 

Oh,  if  we  could  all  die  together  I  If  we  could  keep 
the  lambs  and  the  sheep  of  our  family  flock  all  together 
until  some  bright  spring  day,  the  birds  a-chant,  and  the 
water  a-glitter,  and  then  we  together  could  hear  the 
voice  of  the  good  Shepherd,  and  we  could  all  go  through 
the  flood,  hand  in  hand !  If  we  only  knew  when  we 
were  to  die,  and  we  could  gather  our  family  and  say, 
"Now  Jesus  calls  us,  and  we  must  away  ;"  and  then  we 
could  put  our  little  ones  in  the  bed  and  straighten  out  ^ 
their  limbs,  and  say,  "  Sleep,  now,  the  last  sleep,"  and 
then  we  could  go  to  our  own  couches  and  lie  down,  and 
say,  "  Master,  we  are  all  ready.  The  children  have  gone, 
and  we  are  ready."  But  it  is  not  that  way.  It  is  one 
by  one — one  by  one.  It  may  be  in  mid-wint«r,  and  the 
snow  comes  down  twenty  inches  deep  above  our  fresh 
grave ;  or  it  may  be  in  the  dark,  damp,  chill  March 
midnight ;  or  it  may  be  in  a  hotel,  our  arm  too  weak  to 
pull  the  bell  for  help  ;  or  it  may  be  so  suddenly  we  can 
not  say  good-bye.  Oh,  death  is  bitter — a  racking,  tre- 
mendous curse !  The  apple  that  our  first  parents  pluck- 
ed from  the  forbidden  tree  had  in  it  two  black  seeds,  one  \ 
called  Sin,  the  other  called  Death.  But  I  bless  God  that  h 
I  have  been  able  during  these  four  years  to  preach  to  ' 
you  resurrection  hope.  A  gale  from  heaven  has  blown 
off  the  "white -caps"  of  the  billow  of  sorrow,  and  the 


158  THE  FOUBTH  ANNIVERSARY. 

feet  of  Christ  have  trampled  the  waves  to  a  level,  until 
over  the  glittering  floor  of  the  hushed  waters  have 
marched  all  the  consolations  of  God,  troop  by  troop. 

*'  Oh,  weep  no  more, 
Your  comfort  slain ; 
The  Lord  is  risen, 
He  lives  again." 

So  now  I  take  the  harp  of  Gospel  comfort,  and  play 
three  tunes :  ''Weeping  may  endure  for  a  night,  but  joy 
Cometh  in  the  morning" — that  is  one ;  "All  things  work 
together  for  good  to  those  who  love  God" — that  is  two; 
"And  the  Lamb  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  shall 
lead  them  to  living  fountains  of  water,  and  God  shall 
wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes" — and  that  is  the 
third. 

Above  all,  during  the  past  year  I  have  tried  to  pre- 
sent to  you  Christ  the  only  Saviour  from,  sin^  and  death^ 
and  hell.  I  have  tried  to  show  you  that  unless  a  man 
be  born  again  he  can  not  get  into  heaven.  If  there  be 
any  truth  about  God  or  Christ,  or  death  or  judgment,  or 
heaven  or  hell,  that  I  have  not  presented,  I  wish  you 
would  let  me  know  what  it  is,  that  now  I  may  declare  it. 
I  have  tried  to  show  you  that  religion  was  an  indispensa- 
ble thing,  not  a  mere  adornment,  but  something  that  you 
must  have  or  die.  I  know  that  truth  is  not  always  con- 
sidered popular  at  this  day ;  but  somehow  people  have 
continued  to  come  and  hear  it.  I  feel  it  is  a  vital  truth 
of  Christianity  :  "Believe  in  Christ  and  be  saved — refuse 
him  and  die."  Christ  has  been  so  lovely  to  me  that  I 
want  all  the  world  to  love  him,  and  I  have,  with  all  the 
types  and  figures  of  God's  word  that  I  could  find,  pre- 
sented this  Jesus  to  you,  and  I  am  glad  to  know  that 


THE  FOURTH  ANNIVERSARY.  159 

many  of  you  have  accepted  the  offer.  The  angels  of 
God  have  not  stopped  singing  "Harvest  Home."  There 
are  scores  and  scores  of  souls  who  during  this  past  year 
have  entered  the  Church  on  earth  prepared,  as  I  trust, 
for  the  Church  in  heaven. 

Now  the  year  is  done.  If  you  have  neglected  any 
duty,  or  if  I  have  neglected  any  duty,  it  is  neglected  for- 
ever. Each  year  has  its  work;  if  we  do  not  do  the 
work  during  that  year,  we  never  do  it.  The  year  has 
been  to  me  one  of  great  happiness — the  happiest  year  of 
my  ministry,  and  the  happiest  year  in  my  life.  The 
great  calamity  that  put  our  Tabernacle  in  ashes  has, 
under  the  good  hand  of  God,  been  the  best  blessing  that 
could  possibly  have  come  to  us.  I  think  we  all  feel  that. 
It  has  consolidated  us  as  nothing  could  have  done,  and 
it  has  gathered  the  sympathy  and  the  good  feeling  of 
Christians  of  all  denominations  in  this  country,  and  from 
the  other  side  of  the  seas.  And  it  has  shown  me  that 
in  this  church  there  is  a  great  band  of  Christian  men  and 
women  who  will  stop  at  no  self-denial,  and  who  will  be 
afraid  of  no  hard  work  that  is  to  be  endured  for  Christ. 
The  success  of  the  recent  effort  made  in  another  room  in 
this  building  is  significant  of  that,  and  the  masons  have 
already  begun  the  foundations  of  a  grand,  glorious,  free 
Christian  church.  While  the  best  men  and  the  best 
newspapers  in  this  land  are  in  sympath}^  with  us,  you 
know  very  well  that  there  are  some  who  are  not  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  work  done  by  this  church.  They  do  not 
understand  it,  and  never  will.  In  proportion  as  you  are 
faithful  will  you  be  abused ;  in  other  words,  the  foster  a 
ship  goes,  the  more  angrily  will  the  waters  boil.  So 
there  are  some  secular  and  religious  newspapers  of  this 

7* 


160  THE  FOURTH  ANNIVERSARY. 

day  that  are  full  of  spite  and  full  of  venom.  You  say 
you  do  not  understand  it.  There  is  no  mystery  to  me 
about  it.  It  is  natural.  It  is  the  history  of  the  Church 
of  God  all  the  world  over  in  all  ages.  I  feel  that  our 
church  is  on  the  right  track,  and  I  defy  all  earth  and 
hell ;  for  if  God  be  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us  ?  If 
God  spared  not  his  Son,  but  gave  him  up  for  us,  shall  he 
not  with  him  also  freely  give  us  all  things?  I  am  per- 
suaded that  neither  height,  nor  depth,  nor  length,  nor 
breadth  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God,  which  is 
in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  Our  church  will  go  up,  and 
Christ  will  appear  in  it,  and  he  will  save  thousands  and 
thousands  of  souls.  I  see  it  coming,  and  I  am  in  exul- 
tation at  the  prospect. 

We  enter  now  upon  another  year.  It  will  be  an 
eventful  year.  You  and  I  may  not  live  to  see  its  close, 
for  God  can  spare  you  and  me,  and  ten  thousand  better 
persons  than  we  are,  and  still  carry  on  his  work;  but 
his  Church  will  be  prospered.  Having  risen  up  as  you 
have  to  the  work  of  giving  the  Gospel  to  the  masses  of 
Brooklyn,  nothing  can  put  you  to  confusion.  We  need 
no  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  to  lead  us,  for  God's  angels 
are  sworn  to  defend  us ;  and  success  in  the  future  is  as 
certain  as  though  on  that  wall  I  saw  coming  out  in  let- 
ters of  fire,  while  I  speak,  "Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway, 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world."  I  will  live  to  see  the 
completion  of  the  work  undertaken.  I  know  if  God 
calls  me  before  that  time,  he  will  let  me  come  out  on  the 
battlements  of  heaven,  and  look  oflP  on  the  establishment 
of  that  work  for  which  my  soul  longed.  Eoll  on,  sweet 
days  of  the  world's  emancipation !  when  the  mountains 
and  the  hills  shall  break  forth  into  singing,  and  all  the 


THE  FO  URTH  ANNIVEIiSAB  F.  161 

trees  of  the  wood  sliall  clap  tbeir  bands;  and  instead  of 
the  thorn  shall  come  np  the  fir-tree,  and  instead  of  the 
brier  shall  come  up  the  myrtle-tree ;  and  it  shall  be  to 
the  Lord  for  a  name  for  an  everlasting  sign  that  shall 
not  be  cut  off. 


162  MIGRATION  HEAVENWARD. 


MIGRATION  HEAVENWARD. 

"The  stork  in  the  heaven  knoweth  her  appointed  time;  and  the  turtle 
and  the  crane  and  the  swallow  observe  the  time  of  their  coming ;  but  my 
people  know  not  the  judgment  of  the  Lord." — Jeremiah  \in.,  7. 

WHEN  God  would  set  fast  a  beautiful  thought,  he 
plants  it  in  a  tree.  When  he  would  put  it  afloat, 
he  fashions  it  into  a  fish.  When  he  would  have  it  glide 
the  air,  he  moulds  it  into  a  bird.  My  text  speaks  of  four 
birds  of  beautiful  instinct — the  stork,  of  such  strong  af- 
fection that  it  is  allowed  familiarly  to  come,  in  Holland 
and  Germany,  and  build  its  nest  over  the  door-way ;  the 
sweet-dispositioned  turtle-dove,  mingling  in  color  white, 
and  black,  and  brown,  and  ashen,  and  chestnut;  the 
crane,  with  voice  like  the  clang  of  a  trumpet;  the  swal- 
low, swift  as  a  dart  shot  out  of  the  bow  of  heaven,  fall- 
ing, mounting,  skimming,  sailing — four  birds  started  by 
the  prophet  twenty -five  centuries  ago,  yet  flying  on 
through  the  ages,  with  rousing  truth  under  glossy  wing 
and  in  the  clutch  of  stout  claw.  I  suppose  it  may  have 
been  this  very  season  of  the  year — autumn — and  the 
prophet  out-of-doors,  thinking  of  the  impenitence  of  the 
people  of  his  day,  hears  a  great  cry  overhead. 

Now,  you  know  it  is  no  easy  thing  for  one  with  or- 
dinary delicacy  of  eye-sight  to  look  into  the  deep  blue 
of  the  noonday  heaven ;  but  the  prophet  looks  up,  and 
there  are  flocks  of  storks,  and  turtle-doves,  and  cranes, 
and  swallows,  drawn  out  in  long  lines  for  flight  south- 


mighatiox  he  a  venward.  163 

ward.  As  is  their  habit,  the  cranes  had  arranged  them- 
selves into  two  lines  making  an  angle,  a  wedge  splitting 
the  air  with  v/ild  velocity,  the  old  crane,  with  command- 
ing call  bidding  them  onward  ;  while  the  towns,  and  the 
cities,  and  the  continents  slid  under  them.  The  prophet, 
almost  blinded  from  looking  into  the  dazzling  heavens, 
stoops  down  and  begins  to  think  how  much  superior  the 
birds  are  in  sagacity  about  their  safety  than  men  about 
theirs;  and  he  puts  his  hand  upon  the  pen,  and  begins 
to  write:  "  The  stork  in  the  heaven  knoweth  her  appoint- 
ed times ;  and  the  turtle  and  the  crane  and  the  swallow 
observe  the  time  of  their  coming;  but  my  people  know 
not  the  judgment  of  the  Lord." 

If  you  were  in  the  field  to-day,  in  the  clump  of  trees 
at  the  corner  of  the  field,  you  would  see  a  convention 
of  birds,  noisy  as  the  American  Congress  the  last  night 
before  adjournment,  or  as  the  English  Parliament  when 
some  unfortunate  member  proposes  more  economy  in  the 
Queen's  household — a  convention  of  birds  all  talking  at 
once,  moving  and  passing  resolutions  on  the  subject  of 
migration  ;  some  proposing  to  go  to-morrow,  some  mov- 
ing that  they  go  to-day,  some  moving  that  they  go  to 
Brazil,  some  to  Florida,  some  to  the  table-lands  of  Mex- 
ico, but  all  unanimous  in  the  fact  that  they  must  go  soon, 
for  they  have  marching  orders  from  the  Lord,  written  on 
the  first  white  sheet  of  the  frost,  and  in  the  pictorial  of 
the  changing  leaves.  There  is  not  a  belted  king-fisher, 
or  a  chafiinch,  or  a  fire-crested  wren,  or  a  plover,  or  a 
red-legged  partridge  but  expects  to  spend  the  winter  at 
the  South,  for  the  apartments  have  already  been  ordered 
for  them  in  South  America,  or  in  Africa;  and  after  thou- 
sands of  miles  of  flight,  they  will  stop  in  the  very  tree 


164  MIGRATION  HEAVUNWABD, 

"where  they  spent  last  January.  Farewell,  bright  plum- 
age! Until  spring  weather,  away!  Fly  on,  great  band 
of  heavenly  musicians!  Strew  the  continents  with  mu- 
sic, and  whether  from  Northern  fields,  or  Carolinian 
swamps,  or  Brazilian  groves  men  see  your  wings,  or 
hear  your  voice,  may  they  bethink  themselves  of  the 
solemn  words  of  the  text:  "The  stork  in  the  heaven 
knoweth  her  appointed  times;  and  the  turtle  and  the 
crane  and  the  swallow  observe  the  time  of  their  com- 
ing ;  but  my  people  know  not  the  judgment  of  the  Lord." 

I  propose,  so  far  as  God  may  help  me,  this  morning, 
carrying  out  the  idea  of  the  text,  to  show  that  the  birds 
of  the  air  have  more  sagacity  than  men.  And  I  begin 
by  particularizing  and  saying  that  JJiey^  ^imgle  ^nu^k^mitlL^^ 
their  ivorh.  The  most  serious  undertaking  of  a  bird's  life 
is  this  annual  travel  from  the  Hudson  to  the  Amazon, 
from  the  Thames  to  the  Nile.  Naturalists  tell  us  that 
they  arrive  there  thin,  and  weary,  and  plumage  ruffled, 
and  yet  they  go  singing  all  the  way;  the  ground,  the 
lower  line  of  the  music,  the  sky,  the  upper  line  of  the 
music,  themselves,  the  notes  scattered  up  and  down  be- 
tween. I  suppose  their  song  gives  elasticity  to  their 
wing,  and  helps  on  with  the  journey,  dwindling  a  thou- 
sand miles  into  four  hundred.  Would  God  that  we  were 
as  wise  as  they  in  mingling  Christian  song  with  our 
every-day  work !  I  believe  there  is  such  a  thing  as  tak- 
ing the  pitch  of  Christian  devotion  in  the  morning,  and 
keeping  it  all  the  day.  I  think  we  might  take  some  of 
the  dullest,  heaviest,  most  disagreeable  work  of  our  life, 
and  set  it  to  the  tune  of  "Antioch"  or  "Mount  Pisgah." 

It  is  a  good  sign  when  j^ou  hear  a  workman  whistle. 
i\  }s  V  better  sign  when  you  hear  him  hum  a  roundelay. 


311 GH  ATI  ox  HEAVENWARD.  155 

It  is  a  still  better  sign  when  you  hear  him  wng  the  words 
of  Isaac  Watts  or  Charles  Weslej^  A  violin  chorded 
and  strung,  if  something  accidentally  sirike  it,  makes 
music,  and  I  suppose  there  is  such  a  thing  as  having  our 
hearts  so  attuned  by  divine  grace,  that  even  the  rough 
collisions  of  life  will  make  a  heavenly  vibration.  I  do 
not  believe  that  the  power  of  Christian  song  has  yet 
been  fully  tried.  I  believe  that  if  you  could  roll  the 
"  Old  Hundred"  doxology  through  Wall  Street,  it  would 
put  an  end  to  the  panic !  I  believe  that  the  discords, 
and  the  sorrows,  and  the  sins  of  the  world  are  to  be 
swept  out  by  heaven-born  hallelujahs.  Some  one  asked ^ 
Haydn,  the  celebrated  musician,  why  he  always  composed 
such  cheerful  music.  "Why,"  he  said,  '"I  can't  do  oth- 
erwise. When  I  think  of  God,  my  soul  is  so  full  of  joy 
that  the  notes  leap  and  dance  from  my  pen."  I  wish  we 
might  all  exult  melodiously  before  the  Lord.  With  God 
for  our  Father,  and  Christ  for  our  Saviour,  and  heaven  for 
our  home,  and  angels  for  future  companions,  and  eternity 
for  a  lifetime,  we  should  strike  all  the  notes  of  joy.  Go- 
ins;  throuo-h  the  wilderness  of  this  world,  let  us  remember 
that  we  are  on  the  way  to  the  summery  clime  of  heaven, 
and  from  the  migratory  populations  flying  through  this 
autumnal  air  learn  always  to  keep  singing. 

**  Children  of  the  heavenly  Eng, 
As  ye  jouraey,  sweetly  sing ; 
Sing  your  Saviour's  worthy  praise, 
Glorious  in  his  works  and  ways. 

*' Ye  are  traveling  home  to  God, 
In  the  way  your  fathers  trod  ; 
They  are  happy  now,  and  we 
Soon  their  happiness  shall  see." 


16d  MIGRATION  HEAVENWARD. 

The  Church  of  God  never  will  be  a  triumphant  church 
until  it  becomes  a  singing  church. 

I  go  further,  and  remark  that  the  birds  of  the  air  are 
wiser  than  we,  in  the  fact  that,  in  their  migration,  they 
fly  very  high.  During  the  summer,  when  thej  ar'e^-ift-. 
the- fie-ldsj  th^y  often  come  within  reach  of  the  gun  ;  but 
when  they  start  for  the  annual  flight  southward,  they 
take  their  places  mid-heaven,  and  go  straight  as  a  mark. 
The  longest  rifle  that  was  ever  brought  to  shoulder' can 
not  reach  them.  Would  to  God  that  we  were  as  wise  as 
the  stork  and  crane  in  our  flight  heavenward!  We  fly 
so  low  that  we  are  within  easy  range  of  the  world,  the 
flesh,  and  the  devil.  We  are  brought  down  by  tempta- 
tions that  ought  not  to  come  within  a  mile  of  reaching 
us.  Oh  for  some  of  the  faith  of  George  Miiller  of  En- 
gland, and  Alfred  Cookman,  once  of  the  Church  militant, 
now  of  the  Church  triumphant  1  So  poor  is  the  type  of 
piety  in  the  Church  of  God  now,  that  men  actually  cari- 
cature the  idea  that  there  is  any  such  thing  as  a  higher 
life.  Moles  never  did  believe  in  eagles.  But,  my  breth- 
ren, because  we  have  not  reached  these  heights  ourselves, 
shall  we  deride  the  fact  that  there  are  any  such  heights? 
A  man  was  once  talking^  to  Brunei,  the  famous  eno^ineer, 

O  '  0  7 

about  the  length  of  the  railroad  from  London  to  Bristol. 
The  engineer  said,  "It  is  not  very  great.  We  shall  have, 
after  a  while,  a  steamer  running  from  England  to  New 
York."  They  laughed  him  to  scorn ;  but  we  have  gone 
so  far  now  that  we  have  ceased  to  laugh  at  any  thing  as 
impossible  for  human  achievement.  Then,  I  ask,  is  any 
thing  impossible  for  the  Lord?  I  do  not  believe  that 
God  exhausted  all  his  grace  in  Paul,  and  Latimer,  and 
Edward  Pay  son.     I  believe  there  are  higher  points  of 


MIGRATION  EEAVENWABD.  167 

Christian  attainment  to  be  reached  in  the  future  ages  of 
the  Christian  world.  You  tell  me  that  Paul  went  up  to 
the  tiptop  of  the  Alps  of  Christian  attainment.  Then  I 
tell  you  that  the  stork  and  crane  have  found  above  the 
Alps  plenty  of  room  for  free  flying.  We  go  out  and  we 
conquer  our  temptations  by  the  grace  of  God,  and  lie 
down.  On  the  morrow,  those  temptations  rally  them- 
selves and  attack  us,  and  by  the  grace  of  God  we  defeat 
them  again ;  but,  staying  all  the  time  in  the  old  encamp- 
ment, we  have  the  same  old  battles  to  fight  over.  Why 
not  whip  out  our  temptations,  and  then  forward  march, 
making  one  raid  through  the  enemy's  country,  stopping 
not  until  we  break  ranks  after  the  last  victory.  Do,  my 
brethren,  let  us  have  some  novelty  of  combat,  at  any  rate, 
by  changing,  by  going  on,  by  making  advancement,  trad- 
ing off  our  stale  prayers  about  sins  we  ought  to  have 
quit  long  ago,  going  on  toward  a  higher  state  of  Chris- 
tian character,  and  routing  out  sins  that  we  have  never 
thought  of  yet.  The  fact  is,  if  the  Church  of  God — if  we, 
as  individuals,  made  rapid  advancement  in  the  Christian 
life,  these  stereotyped  prayers  we  have  been  making  for 
ten  or  fifteen  years  would  be  as  inappropriate  to  us  as 
the  shoes,  and  the  hats,  and  the  coats  w^e  wore  ten  or  fif- 
teen years  ago.  Oh  for  a  higher  flight  in  the  Christian 
life,  the  stork  and  the  crane  in  their  migration  teaching 
us  the  lesson ! 

"Dear  Lord,  and  shall  we  ever  live, 
At  this  poor  dying  rate — 
Our  love  so  faint,  so  cold  to  thee, 
And  thine  to  us  so  gieat  ?" 

Again,  I  remark  that  the  birds  of  the  air  are  wiser 
than  we,  because  thoy  know  ivhen  to  start.     If  you  should 


168  MIGRATION  HEAVENWARD. 

go  out  now  and  shout,  "Stop,  storks  and  cranes, don't  be 
in  a  hurrj !"  tbey  would  say,  "  No,  we  can  not  stop;  last 
night  we  heard  the  roaring  in  the  woods  bidding  us  away, 
and  the  shrill  flute  of  the  north  wind  has  sounded  the 
retreat.  We  must  go.  We  must  go."  So  they  gather 
themselves  into  companies,  and  turning  not  aside  for 
storm  or  mountain  top  or  shock  of  musketry,  over  land 
and  sea,  straight  as  an  arrow  to  the  mark  they  go.  And 
if  you  come  out  this  morning  with  a  sack  of  corn  and 
throw  it  in  the  fields  and  try  to  get  them  to  stop,  they 
are  so  far  up  they  would  hardly  see  it.  They  are  on 
their  way  south.  You  could  not  stop  them.  Oh  that 
we  were  as  wise  about  the  best  time  to  start  for  God  and 
heaven  !  We  say,  "  Wait  until  it  is  a  little  later  in  the 
season  of  mercy.  Wait  until  some  of  these  green  leaves 
of  hope  are  all  dried  up  and  have  been  scattered.  Wait 
■until  next  year."  After  a  while  we  start,  and  it  is  too 
late,  and  we  perish  in  the  way  when  God's  wrath  is  kin- 
dled but  a  little.  There  are,  you  know,  exceptional  cases 
"where  birds  have  started  too  late,  and  in  the  morning 
you  have  found  them  dead  on  the  snow.  And  there  are 
those  who  have  perished  half-way  between  the  world  and 
Christ.  They  waited  until  the  last  sickness,  when  the 
mind  was  gone,  or  they  were  on  the  express  train  going 
at  forty  miles  an  hour,  and  they  came  to  the  bridge  and 
the  "  draw  was  up  "  and  they  went  down.  How  long  to 
repent  and  pray?  Two  seconds!  Two  seconds!  To 
do  the  work  of  a  lifetime  and  to  prepare  for  the  vast 
eternity  in  two  seconds!  I  was  reading  of  an  entertain- 
ment given  in  a  king's  court,  and  there  were  musicians 
there,  with  elaborate  pieces  of  music.  After  a  while  Mo- 
zart came  and  began  to  play,  and  he  had  a  blank  piece 


MIGRATION  HEAVENWARD.  169 

of  paper  before  bim,  and  the  king  familiarly  looked  over 
his  shoulder  and  said,  "What  are  you  playing?  I  see 
no  music  before  you."  And  Mozart  put  his  hand  on  his 
brow,  as  much  as  to  say,  "  I  am  improvising."  It  was 
very  well  for  him,  but  oh,  my  friends,  we  can  not  extem- 
porize heaven.  If  we  do  not  get  prepared  in  this  world, 
we  will  never  take  part  in  the  orchestral  harmonies  of 
the  saved.  If  we  go  out  of  this  world  unpardoned,  we 
secure  for  our  souls  a  blasted  residence.  Oh  that  we 
were  as  wise  as  the  crane  and  the  stork,  flying  away,  fly- 
ing away  from  the  tempest ! 

Some  of  you  have  felt  the  pinching  frost  of  sin.  Yoa 
feel  it  to-day.  You  are  not  happy.  I  look  into  your 
faces,  and  I  know  you  are  not  happy.  There  are  voices 
within  your  soul  that  will  not  be  silenced,  telling  you 
that  you  are  sinners,  and  that  without  the  pardon  of  God 
you  are  undone  forever.  What  are  you  going  to  do,  my 
friends,  with  the  accumulated  trangressions  of  this  life- 
time? Will  you  stand  still  and  let  the  avalanche  tumble 
over  you  ?  Oh  that  you  would  go  away  into  the  warm 
heart  of  God's  mercy.  The  Southern  grove,  redolent 
with  magnolia  and  cactus,  never  waited  for  Northern 
flocks  as  God  has  waited  for  you,  saying,  "I  have  loved 
thee  with  an  everlasting  love.  Come  unto  me,  all  ye 
who  are  weary  and  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you 
rest." 

Another  frost  is  bidding  you  away — it  is  the  frost  of 
sorrow.  Where  do  you  live  now?  "Oh,"  you  say,  "I 
have  moved."  Why  did  you  move  ?  You  say,  "  I  don't 
want  as  large  a  house  now  as  formerly."  Why  do  you 
not  want  as  large  a  house  ?  You  say,  "  My  family  is  not 
so  large."    Where  have  they  gone  to  ?     Eternity  !    Your 


170  MIORA  TION  HE  A  VEN  WARD. 

mind  goes  back  through  that  last  sickness  and  through 
the  almost  supernatural  effort  to  keep  life,  and  through 
those  prayers  that  seemed  unavailing,  and  through  that 
kiss  which  received  no  response  because  the  lips  were 
lifeless,  and  I  hear  the  bells  tolling  and  I  hear  the  hearts 
breaking — while  I  speak,  I  hear  them  break.  A  heart! 
Another  heart!  Alone!  alone!  alone!  This  world,  which 
in  your  girlhood  and  boyhood  was  sunshine,  is  cold  now, 
and  oh  !  weary  dove,  you  fly  around  this  world  as  though 
you  would  like  to  stay,  when  the  wind  and  the  frost  and 
the  blackening  clouds  would  bid  you  away  into  the  heart 
of  an  all-comforting  God.  Oh,  I  have  noticed  again  and 
again  what  a  botch  this  world  makes  of  it  when  it  tries 
to  comfort  a  soul  in  trouble!  It  says,  "Don't  cry!" 
How  can  we  help  crying  when  the  heart's  treasures  are 
scattered,  and  father  is  gone,  and  mother  is  gone,  and 
companions  are  gone,  and  the  child  is  gone,  and  every 
thing  seems  gone?  It  is  no  comfort  to  tell  a  man  not  to 
cry.  The  world  comes  up  and  says,  "  Oh,  it  is  only  the 
body  of  "your  loved  one  that  you  have  put  in  the  ground !" 
But  there  is  no  comfort  in  that.  That  body  is  precious. 
Shall  we  never  put  our  hand  in  that  hand  again,  and 
shall  we  never  see  that  sweet  face  again?  Away  with 
your  heartlessness,  oh  world  !  But  come,  Jesus !  and  tell 
us  that  when  the  tears  fall  they  foil  into  God's  bottle ;  that 
the  dear  bodies  of  our  loved  ones  shall  rise  radiant  in  the 
resurrection;  and  all  the  breakings  down  here  shall  be 
liftings  up  there,  and  "  they  shall  hunger  no  more,  neither 
thirst  any  more,  neither  shall  the  sun  light  on  them  nor 
any  heat,  for  the  Lamb  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the 
throne  shall  lead  them  to  living  fountains  of  water,  and 
God  shall  wipe  all  tears  from  their  eyes." 


MIGIiA  riOX  HE  A  VEX^yA  RD.  171 

Yon  may  bave  noticed  that  when  the  chaffinch  or  the 
stork  or  the  crane  starts  on  its  migration,  it  calls  all  those 
of  its  kind  to  come  too.  The  tree-tops  are  full  of  chirp 
and  whistle  and  carol  and  the  long  roll-call.  The  bird 
does  not  start  off  alone.  It  gathers  all  of  its  kind.  Oh 
that  you  might  be  as  wise  in  this  migration  to  heaven, 
and  that  you  might  gather  all  your  families  and  your 
friends  with  you!  I  would  that  Hannah  might  take 
Samuel  by  the  hand,  and  Abraham  might  take  Isaac,  and 
Hagar  might  take  Ishmael.  I  ask  you  if  those  who  sat 
at  your  breakfast-table  this  morning  will  sit  with  you  in 
heaven?  I  ask  you  what  influences  you  are  trying  to 
bring  upon  them,  what  example  you  are  setting  them? 
Are  you  calling  them  to  go  with  you  ?  Ay,  ay,  have 
you  started  yourself?  I  say  it  in  all  love.  I  could  not 
stand  here  in  any  other  spirit  and  say  this.  I  ask  you 
what  the  prospects  are  that  you  will  be  united  families 
in  heaven  ?  I  have  heard  of  whole  fiimilies  saved,  and 
so  have  you.  I  suppose  there  is  such  a  thing  also  as  a 
whole  family  lost.  Father  lost,  mother  lost,  sons  and 
daughters  lost,  the  estate  of  wTetchedness  going  down 
from  generation  to  generation,  the  tide  of  blackness 
deepening  and  swiftening  into  wilder  rapids  and  might- 
ier plunges  of  despair.  Impenitent  father,  impenitent 
mother!  if  you  reject  Christ,  and  your  children  come  up 
to  years  of  discretion,  and  through  your  influence  reject 
him  and  are  lost,  it  will  be  your  fault.  Oh,  if  there 
should  come   throuofh  the   darkness   of  the  lost  w^orld 

o 

words  from  their  own  lips,  saying,  ''Father,  you  never 
invited  me  to  Christ;  mother,  your  example  led  me  away 
from  Jesus,  and  I  am  lost ;  you  got  me  here ;  you  can 
not  get  me  out!" 


1 72  MIGRA  TION  HE  A  VENWARD. 

Start  for  heaven  yourself,  and  take  your  children  with 
you.  Come  thou  and  all  thy  house  into  the  ark.  Tell 
your  little  ones  that  there  are  realms  of  balm  and  sweet- 
ness for  all  those  who  fly  in  the  right  direction.  Heav- 
en beckons  from  above ;  hell  gapes  from  beneath ;  and 
this  is  the  only  safe  hour.  Oh,  make  the  best  of  it. 
Swifter  than  eagle's  stroke,  put  out  for  heaven.  Like  the 
crane  or  the  stork,  stop  not  night  nor  day  until  you  find 
the  right  place  for  stopping.  Seated  to-day  in  Christian 
service,  will  you  be  seated  in  the  same  glorious  service 
when  the  heavens  have  passed  away  with  a  great  noise, 
and  the  elements  have  melted  with  fervent  heat,  and  the 
redeemed  are  gathered  around  the  throne  of  Jesus  ?  Oh, 
is  it  impossible  that  the  separating  line  goes  through 
any  family  in  my  beloved  flock?  Is  the  father  on  one 
side  and  the  mother  on  the  other  side  of  the  line  that 
divides  the  two  eternities?  If  you  are  saved,  take 
your  friends  with  you.  Invite  all  your  children  to 
go  along.  Together  on  earth,  may  you  be  together  in 
heaven ! 

It  is  strange  how  out  of  the  same  bell  you  may  get 
such  different  sounds — glad  and  sad — just  as  the  janitor 
rings  it  fast  or  slow.  So  when  Independence-day  comes 
he  rings  the  bell  merrily,  and  every  stroke  seems  to  say 
"Independence,"  "liberty;"  and  then,  when  the  long 
procession  winds  into  the  church-yard,  that  very  same 
bell  tolls  for  the  dead.  So  it  is  with  this  Gospel  bell.  I 
lay  hold  the  rope  to-day,  and  offer  you  pardon,  peace,  and 
heaven.  How  gladly  the  bell  rings  out  I  Free  !  Free  I 
But  there  is  another  story  to  be  told.  Those  who  reject 
God  and  wander  away  from  him,  go  into  perpetual  sor- 
row ;  and  so  I  lay  hold  the  rope  of  the  bell  and  give  it 


MIORA  TION  HE  A  VENWARD.  1 73 

slow,  sad,  solemn  pull,  and  it  rings  out,  through  the  dark- 
ness of  the  destroyed  spirit,  Woe !  Woe ! 

**  To-day  the  Saviour  calls, 

Ye  wanderers  come. 

Oh,  ye  benighted  souls, 

Why  longer  roam  ? 

The  Spirit  calls  to-day, 

Yield  to  his  power. 
Oh,  grieve  Him  not  awaj, 

'Tis  mercy's  hour." 


174  THE  LAYER  OF  LOOKING- GLASSES. 


THE  LAYER  OF  LOOKING-GLASSES. 

"And  he  made  the  laver  of  brass,  and  the  foot  of  it  of  brass,  of  the 
looking-glasses  of  the  women  assembling." — Exodus  xxxviii.,  8. 

"TTTE  often  hear  about  the  Gospel  in  John,  and  the 
^  ^  Gospel  in  Luke,  and  the  Gospel  in  Matthew ;  but 
there  is  just  as  surely  a  Gospel  of  Moses,  and  a  Gospel 
of  Jeremiah,  and  a  Gospel  of  David.  In  other  words, 
Christ  is  as  certainly  to  be  found  in  the  Old  Testament 
as  in  the  New. 

When  the  Israelites  were  marching  through  the  wil- 
derness, they  carried  their  church  with  them.  They 
called  it  the  tabernacle.  It  was  a  pitched  tent;  very 
costly,  very  beautiful.  The  frame-work  was  made  of 
forty-eight  boards  of  acacia-wood  set  in  sockets  of  silver. 
The  curtains  of  the  place  were  purple,  and  scarlet,  and 
blue,  and  fine  linen,  and  were  hung  with  most  artistic 
loops.  The  candlestick  of  that  tabernacle  had  shaft,  and 
branch,  and  bowl  of  solid  gold,  and  the  figures  of  cheru- 
bim that  stood  there  had  wings  of  gold ;  and  there  were 
lamps  of  gold,  and  snuffers  of  gold,  and  tongs  of  gold, 
and  rings  of  gold;  so  that  skepticism  has  sometimes  ask- 
ed, Where  did  all  that  precious  material  come  from?  It 
is  not  my  place  to  furnish  the  precious  stones,  it  is  only 
to  tell  that  they  were  there. 

I  wish  now  more  especially  to  speak  of  the  laver  that 
"was  built  in  the  midst  of  that  ancient  tabernacle.     It  was 


THE  LAYER  OF  LOOKING-GLASSES.  175 

a  great  basin  from  which  the  priests  washed  their  hands 
and_ieet.  The  water  came  down  from  the  basin  in 
spouts  and  passed  away  after  the  cleansing.  This  laver 
or  basin  was  made  out  of  the  looking-glasses  of  the  wom- 
en who  had  frequented  the  tabernacle,  and  who  had 
made  these  their  contribution  to  the  furniture.  These 
looking-glasses  were  not  made  of  glass,  but  they  were 
brazen.  The  brass  was  of  a  very  superior  quality,  and 
polished  until  it  reflected  easily  the  features  of  those 
who  looked  into  it.  So  that  this  laver  of  looking-glasses 
spoken  of  in  my  text  did  double  work:  it  not  only  fur- 
nished the  water  in  which  the  priests  washed  themselves, 
but  it  also,  on  its  shining,  polished  surface,  pointed  out 
the  spots  of  pollution  on  the  face  which  needed  ablution. 
Now,  my  Christian  friends,  as  every  thing  in  that  ancient 
tabernacle  was  suggestive  of  religious  truth,  and  for  the 
most  part  positivel}^  S3^mbolical  of  truth,  I  shall  take  that 
laver  of  looking-glasses  spoken  of  in  the  text  as  all-sug- 
gestive of  the  Grospel,  which  first  shows  us  our  sins  as  in 
a  mirror,  and  then  washes  them  away  by  divine  ablution. 

"Oh  happy  day,  happy  day, 
When  Jesus  washed  my  sins  away!" 

I  have  to  say  that  this  is  the  only  looking-glass  in 
which  a  man  can  see  himself  as  lie- is*-  There  are  some 
mirrors  that  flatter  the  features,  and  make  you  look  bet- 
ter than  3^ou  are.  Then  there  are  other  mirrors  that  dis- 
tort your  features,  and  make  you  look  worse  than  you 
are ;  but  I  want  to  tell  you  that  this  looking-glass  of  the 
Gospel  shows  a  man  just  as  he  is.  When  the  priests  en- 
tered the  ancient  tabernacle,  one  glance  at  the  burnished 
side  of  this  laver  showed  them  their  need  of  cleansing ; 

8 


176  THE  LAYER   OF  LOOKING-GLASSES. 

BO  this  Gospel  shows  the  soul  its  need  of  divine  wash- 
ing. "All  have  sinned,  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of 
God."  That  is  one  showing.  "All  we,  like  sheep,  have 
gone  astray."  That  is  another  showing.  "From  the 
crown  of  the  head  to  'the  sole  of  the  foot  there  is  no 
health  in  us."  That  is  another  showing.  The  world 
calls  these,  defects,  imperfections,  or  eccentricities,  or  er- 
ratic behavior,  or  "  wild  oats,"  or  "high  living;"  but  the 
Gospel  calls  them  sin,  transgression,  filth — the  abomina- 
ble thing  that  God  hates.  It  was  just  one  glance  at  that 
mirror  that  made  Paul  cry  out,  "  Oh  wretched  man  that 
I  am,  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death  ?" 
and  that  made  David  cry  out,  "Purge  me  with  hyssop, 
and  I  shall  be  clean ;"  and  that  made  Martin  Luther  cry 
out,  "Oh  my  sins,  my  sins!"  I  am  not  talking  about 
bad  habits.  You  and  I  do  not  need  any  Bible  to  tell  us 
that  bad  habits  are  wrong,  that  blasphemy  and  evil- 
speaking  are  wrong.  But  I  am  talking  of  a  sinftd  na- 
ture, the  source  of  all  bad  thoughts,  as  well  as  of  all  bad 
actions.  The  Apostle  Paul  calls  their  roll  in  the  first 
chapter  of  Romans.  They  are  a  regiment  of  death  en- 
camping around  every  heart,  holding  it  in  a  tyranny 
from  which  nothing  but  the  grace  of  God  can  deliver  it. 
Here,  for  instance,  is  ingratitude.  Who  has  not  been 
guilty  of  that  sin  ?  If  a  man  hand  us  a  glass  of  water, 
we  say,  "  Thank  you ;"  but  for  the  ten  thousand  mercies 
that  w^e  are  every  day  receiving  from  the  hand  of  God, 
how  little  expression  of  gratitude — for  thirst  slaked,  for 
hunger  fed,  for  shelter,  and  sunshine,  and  sound  sleep,  and 
clothes  to  wear — how  little  thanks !  I  suppose  there  are 
men  fifty  years  of  age  who  have  never  yet  been  down  on 
their  knees  in  thanksgiving  to  God  for  his  goodness.    Be- 


/        THE  LAYER   OF  LOOKING-GLASSES.  177 

sides  that  ingratitude  of  our  hearts,  there  is- pride  (who 
has  not  felt  it?) — pride  that  will  not  submit  to  God,  that 
wants  its  own  way — a  nature  that  prefers  wrong  some- 
times instead  of  right — that  prefers  to  wallow  instead  of 
to  rise  up.  I  do  not  care  what  you  call  that ;  I  am  not 
going  to  quarrel  with  anj^  theologian,  or  any  man  who 
makes  any  pretensions  to  theology.  I  do  not  care  wheth- 
er you  call  it  "  total  depravity,"  or  something  else ;  I 
simply  make  the  announcement  of  God's  word,  affirmed 
and  confirmed  by  the  experience  of  hundreds  of  people 
in  this  house:  the  imagination  of  the  heart  of  man  is  evil 
from  youth.  "There  is  none  that  doeth  good;  no,  not 
one."  We  have  a  bad  nature.  We  were  born  with  it. 
We  got  it  from  our  parents ;  they  got  it  from  their  par- 
ents. Our  thoughts  are  wrong,  our  action  is  wrong;  our 
whole  life  is  obnoxious  to  God  before  conversion ;  and 
after  conversion,  not  one  good  thing  in  us  but  that  which 
the  grace  of  God  has  planted  and  fostered.  "Well," 
you  say,  "  I  can't  believe  that  to  be  so."  Ah !  my  dear 
brother,  that  is  because  you  have  never  looked  into  this 
laver  of  looking-glasses. 

If  you  could  catch  a  glimpse  of  your  natural  heart  be- 
fore God,  you  w^ould  cry  out  in  amazement  and  alarm. 
The  very  first  thing  this  Gospel  does  is  to  cut  down  our 
pride  and  selfrSufiQjciency.  If  a  man  does  not  feel  his  lost 
and  ruined  condition  before  God,  he  does  not  want  any 
Gospel.  I  think  the  reason  that  there  are  so  few  conver- 
sions in  this  day  is  because  the  tendency  of  the  preach- 
ing is  to  make  men  believe  that  they  are  pretty  good 
anyhow — quite  clever,  only  w^anting  a  little  fitting  up — 
a  few  touches  of  divine  grace,  and  then  you  will  be  all 
right;  instead  of  proclaiming  the  broad,  deep  truth  that 


178  THE  LAVEB  OF  LOOKING-GLASSES, 

Payson,  and  Baxter,  and  Whitefield  thundered  to  a  race 
trembling  on  the  verge  of  infinite  and  eternal  disaster. 
"Now,"  says  some  one,  "can  this  really  be  true  ?  Have 
we  all  gone  astray  ?  Is  there  no  good  in  us  ?"  In  Hamp- 
ton Court  I  saw  a  room  where  the  four  walls  were  cov- 
ered with  looking-glasses;  and  it  made  no  difference 
which  way  you  looked,  you  saw  yourself.  And  so  it  is 
in  this  Gospel  of  Christ.  If  you  once  step  within  its  full 
precincts,  you  will  find  your  whole  character  reflected ; 
every  feature  of  moral  deformity,  every  spot  of  moral 
taint.  If  I  understand  the  Word  of  God,  its  first  an- 
nouncement is  that  we  are  lost.  I  care  not,  my  brother, 
how  magnificently  you  may  have  been  born,  or  what 
may  have  been  your  heritage  or  ancestry,  you  are  lost  by 
reason  of  sin.  "But,"  you  say,  "what  is  the  use  of  all 
this — of  showing  a  man's  fliults  when  he  can't  get  rid  of 
them?"  Kone!  "What  was  the  use  of  that  burnished 
surface  to  this  laver  of  looking-glasses  spoken  of  in  the 
text,  if  it  only  showed  the  spots  on  the  countenance  and 
the  need  of  washing,  and  there  was  nothing  to  wash  with  ?" 
Glory  be  to  God,  I  find  that  this  laver  of  looking-glasses 
was  filled  with  fresh  water  every  morning,  and  the  priest 
no  sooner  looked  on  its  burnished  side  and  saw  his  need 
of  cleansing,  than  he  washed  and  was  clean — glorious 
type  of  the  Gospel  of  my  Lord  Jesus,  that  first  shows  a 
man  his  sin,  and  then  washes  it  all  away !" 

I  want  you  to  notice  that  this  laver  in  which  the  priest 
washed  —  the  laver  of  looking-glasses — was  filled  with 
fresh  water  every  morning.  The  servants  of  the  taberna- 
cle brought  the  water  in  buckets  and  poured  it  into  this 
laver.  So  it  is  with  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ;  it  has 
a  fresh  salvation  every  day.     It  is  not  a  stagnant  pool 


THE  LAYER  OF  LOOKING-GLASSES,  179 

filled  with  accumulated  corruptions.  It  is  living  water, 
which  is  brought  from  the  eternal  rock  to  wash  away 
the  sins  of  yesterday — of  one  moment  ago.  "  Oh,"  says 
some  one,  "I  was  a  Christian  twenty  years  ago!"  That 
does  not  mean  any  thing  to  me.  What  are  you  now? 
We  are  not  talking,  my  brother,  about  pardon  ten  years 
ago,  but  about  pardon  now — a  fresh  salvation.  Suppose 
a  time  of  war  should  come,  and  I  could  show  the  Govern- 
ment that  I  had  been  loyal  to  it  twelve  years  ago,  would 
that  excuse  me  from  taking  an  oath  of  allegiance  now  ? 
Suppose  you  ask  me  about  my  physical  health,  and  I 
should  say  I  was  well  fifteen  years  ago — that  does  not  say 
how  I  amLnow.  The  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  comes  and 
demands  present  allegiance,  present  fealty,  present  moral 
health ;  and  yet  how  many  Christians  there  are  seeking 
to  live  entirely  in  past  experience,  who  seem  to  have  no 
experience  of  present  mercy  and  pardon  !  When  I  was 
on  the  sea,  and  there  came  up  a  great  storm,  and  officers 
and  crew  and  passengers  all  thought  we  must  go  down, 
I  began  to  think  of  my  life  insurance,  and  whether,  if  I 
were  taken  away,  my  family  would  be  cared  for;  and 
then  I  thought.  Is  the  premium  paid  up?  and  I  said 
Yes.  Then  I  felt  comfortable.  Yet  there  are  men  who 
in  religious  matters  are  looking  back  to  past  insurance. 
They  have  let  it  run  out,  and  they  have  nothing  for  the 
present,  no  hope  nor  pardon — falling  back  on  the  old  in- 
surance policy  often,  twenty,  thirty  years  ago.  If  I  want 
to  find  out  how  a  friend  feels  toward  me,  do  I  go  to  the 
drawer  and  find  some  old  yellow  letters  written  to  me 
ten  or  twelve  years  ago?  No;  I  go  to  the  letter  that 
was  stamped  the  day  before  yesterday  in  the  post-office, 
and  I  find  how  he  feels  toward  me.     It  is  not  in  regard 


180  THE  LAYER  OF  LOOEWG-OLASSES. 

to  old  communications  we  had  with  Jesus  Christ,  it  is 
communications  we  have  now.  Are  we  not  in  sympathy 
with  him  this  morning,  and  is  he  not  in  symjDathy  with 
us?  Do  not  spend  so  much  of  your  time  in  hunting  in 
the  wardrobe  for  the  old,  worn-out  shoes  of  Christian 
profession.  Come  this  morning  and  take  the  glittering 
robe  of  Christ's  righteousness  from  the  Saviour's  hand. 
You  say  you  were  plunged  in  the  fountain  of  the  Sa^l- 
iour's  mercy  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  That  is  nota- 
ing  to  me;  I  tell  you  to  wash  now  in  this  laver  of  look- 
ing-glasses and  have  your  soul  made  clean. 

I  notice  also,  in  regard  to  this  laver  of  looking-glasses 
spoken  of  in  the  text,  that  the  priests  always  washed  hoih 
hands  and  feet.  The  water  came  down  in  sp^outs^so  that, 
without  leaving  any  filth  in  the  basin,  the  priests  wash- 
ed both  hands  and  feet.  So  the  Gospel  of  Jesns  Christ 
must  touch  the  very  extremities  of  our  moral  nature.  A 
man  can  not  fence  off  a  small  part  of  his  soul,  and  say, 
"]^ow  this  is  to  be  a  garden  in  which  I  will  have  all 
the  fruits  and  flowers  of  Christian  character,  while  out- 
side it  shall  be  the  devil's  commons."  No,  no ;  it  will 
be  all  garden  or  none.  I  sometimes  hear  people  say,  ''He 
is  a  very  good  man  except  in  politics."  Then  he  is  not 
a  good  man.  A  religion  that  will  not  take  a  man  through 
an  autumn  election  will  not  be  worth  any  thing  to  him 
in  June,  July,  and  August.  They  say  he  is  a  useful  sort 
of  a  man,  but  he  overreaches  in  a  bargain.  I  deny  the 
statement.  If  he  is  a  Christian  anywhere,  he  will  be  in 
his  business.  It  is  very  easy  to  be  good  in  the  prayer- 
meeting,  with  surroundings  kindly  and  blessed,  but  not 
so  easy  to  be  a  Christian  behind  the  counter,  when  by 
one  skillful  twitch  of  the  goods  you  can  hide  a  flaw  in 


THE  LA  VER  OF  LO  OEING-  GLASSES.  181 

the  silk  SO  that  the  customer  can  not  see  it.  It  is  very 
easy  to  be  a  Christian  with  a  psalm-book  in  your  hand 
and  a  Bible  in  your  lap,  but  not  so  easy  when  3'ou  can 
go  into  a  shop,  and  falsely  tell  the  merchant  you  can  get 
those  goods  at  a  cheaper  rate  in  another  store,  so  that  he 
will  sell  them  to  you  cheaper  than  he  can  afford  to  sell 
them.  The  fact  is,  the  religion  of  Christ  is  all-pervasive. 
If  you  rent  a  house,  you  expect  full  possession  of  it 
You  say,  "  Where  are  the  keys  of  those  rooms  ?  If  I  pay 
for  this  whole  house,  I  want  possession  of  those  rooms." 
And  the  grace  of  God  when  it  comes  to  a  soul  takes  full 
possession  of  a  man,  or  goes  away  and  takes  no  posses- 
sion. It  will  ransack  every  room  in  the  heart,  every 
room  in  the  life,  from  cellar  to  attic,  touching  the  very 
extremities  of  his  nature.  The  priests  washed  hands 
and  feet. 

I  remark,  farther,  that  this  laver^  of  looking-glasses 
spoken  of  in  the  text  was  ii^JverjL[Jmge_lcLver^^,  I  always 
thought,  from  the  fact  that  so  many  washed  there,  and 
also  from  the  fact  that  Solom.on  afterward,  when  he 
copied  that  laver  in  the  Temple,  built  it  on  a  very  large 
scale,  that  it  was  large;  and  so  suggestive  of  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  salvation  by  him — vast  in  its  pro- 
visions. The  whole  world  may  come  and  wash  in  this 
laver  and  be  clean. 

AVhen  the  last  war  had  passed,  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  made  proclamation  of  pardon  to  the 
common  soldiery  in  the  Confederate  army,  but  not  to 
the  chief  soldiers.  The  Gospel  of  Christ  does  not  act 
in  that  way.  It  says  pardon  for  all,  but  especially  for 
the  chief  of  sinners.  I  do  not  now  think  of  a  single  pas- 
sage that  says  a  small  sinner  may  be  saved,  but  I  do 


182  THE  LAYER  OF  LOOKING-GLASSES. 

think  of  passages  that  say  a  great  sinner  may  be  saved. 
If  there  be  sins  only  faintly  hued,  just  a  little  tinged, 
so  faintly  colored  that  you  can  hardly  see  them,  there  is 
no  special  pardon  promised  in  the  Bible  for  those  sins; 
but  if  they  be  glaring,  red  like  crimson,  then  they  shall 
be  as  snow.  Now,  my  brother,  I  do  not  state  this  to 
put  a  premium  upon  great  iniquity.  I  merely  say  this 
to  encourage  that  man  in  this  house  who  feels  he  is  so 
far  gone  from  God  that  there  is  no  mercy  for  him.  Ij 
want  to  tell  him  there  is  a  good  chance.  Why,  Pau 
was  a  murderer;  he  assisted  at  the  execution  of  Stephen  jA 
and  yet  Paul  was  saved.  The  dying  thief  did  everjx 
thing  bad.  The  dying  thief  was  saved.  Kichard  BaxI 
ter  swore  dreadfully  ;  but  the  grace  of  God  met  him,  and 
Eichard  Baxter  was  saved.  It  is  a  vast  laver.  Go  and 
tell  every  body  to  come  and  wash  in  it.  Let  them  come 
lip  from  the  penitentiaries  and  wash  away  their  crimes. 
Let  them  come  up  from  the  alms-houses  and  wash  away 
their  poverty.  Let  them  come  up  from  their  graves  and 
wash  away  their  death.  If  there  be  any  one  so  worn 
out  in  sin  that  he  can  not  get  up  to  the  laver,  you  will 
take  hold  of  his  head  and  put  your  arms  around  him, 
and  I  will  take  hold  of  his  feet,  and  we  will  plunge  him 
in  this  glorious  Bethesda,  the  vast  laver  of  God's  mer- 
cy and  salvation.  In  Solomon's  Temple  there  were  ten 
lavers,  and  one  molten  sea — this  great  reservoir  in  the 
midst  of  the  temple  filled  with  water — these  lavers  and 
this  molten  sea  adorned  with  figures  of  palm-branch,  and 
oxen,  and  lions,  and  cherubim.  This  fountain  of  God's 
mercy  is  a  vaster  molten  sea  than  that.  It  is  adorned 
not  with  palm-branches,  but  with  the  wood  of  the  cross; 
not  with  cherubim,  but  with  the  wings   of  the   Holy 


THE  LAYER  OF  LOOKING-GLASSES.  183 

Gho&t;  and  around  its  great  rim  all  the  race  may  come 
and  wash  in  the  molten  sea.  I  was  reading  the  other 
day  of  Alexander  the  Great,  who,  when  he  was  very 
thirsty  and  standing  at  the  head  of  his  army,  had  brought 
to  him  a  cup  of  water.  He  looked  off  upon  his  host  and 
said,  "I  can  not  drink  this,  ni}^  men  are  all  thirsty  f  and 
he  dashed  it  to  the  ground.  Blessed  be  God!  there  is 
enough  water  for  all  the  host — enough  for  captains  and 
host.  "Whosoever  will  may  come  and  take  of  the 
water  of  life  freely  " — a  laver  broad  as  the  earth,  high 
as  the  heavens,  and  deep  as  hell. 

But  I  notice  also,  in  regard  to  this  laver  of  looking- 
glasses  spoken  of  in  the  text,  that  the  washing  in  it  was 
tm^eralive,  and  not  optional.  When  the  priests  come  into 
the  taBefrracte -(yotr-\vill  find  this  in  the  thirtieth  chapter 
of  Exodus),  God  tells  them  that  they  must  wash  in  that 
laver  or  die.  The  priest  might  have  said,  "  Can't  I  wash 
elsewhere?  I  washed  in  the  laver  at  home,  and  now 
you  wapt  me  to  wash  here."  God  says,  "No  matter 
whether  or  not  you  have  washed  before.  Wash  in  this 
laver  or  die.''  "But,"  says  the  priest,  "there  is  water 
just  as  clean  as  this — why  won't  that  do?"  "Wash 
here,"  says  God,  "  or  die."  So  it  is  with  the  Gospel  of 
Christ — it  is  imperative.  There  is  only  this  alternative  : 
keep  our  sins  and  perish,  or  wash  them  away  and  live. 
But  says  some  one,  "Why  could  not  God  have  made 
more  ways  to  heaven  than  one?"  I  do  not  know  but  he 
could  have  made  half  a  dozen.  I  know  he  made  but 
one.  You  say,  "Why  not  have  a  long  line  of  boats  run- 
ning from  here  to  heaven  ?"  I  can  not  say,  but  I  simply 
know  that  there  is  only  one  boat.  You  say,  "Are  there 
not  trees  as  luxuriant  as  that  on  Calvary? — more luxuri- 

8* 


1 84  THE  LA  VER  OF  L  0  OKIXG-  GLASSES. 

ant,  for  tbat  had  neither  buds  nor  blossoms;  it  was  strip- 
ped and  barked  I"  Yes,  yes,  there  have  been  taller  trees 
than  that  and  more  luxuriant;  but  the  only  path  to 
heaven  is  under  that  one  tree.  Instead  of  quarreling  be- 
cause there  are  not  more  v^ays,  let  us  be  thankful  to  God 
there  is  one — one  name  given  unto  men  whereby  we  can 
be  saved — one  laver  in  which  all  the  world  may  wash. 
So  you  see  what  a  radiant  Gospel  this  is  I  preach.  I  do 
not  know  how  a  man  can  stand  stolidly  and  present  it, 
for  it  is  such  an  exhilarant  Gospel.  It  is  not  a  mere 
whim  or  caprice;  it  is  life  or  death ;  it  is  heaven  or  hell. 
You  come  before  your  child,  and  you  have  a  present  in 
your  hand.  You  put  your  hands  behind  your  back  and 
say,  "Which  hand  will  you  take?  In  one  hand  there  is 
a  treasure,  in  the  other  there  is  not."  The  child  blind- 
ly chooses.  But  God  our  Father  does  not  do  that  way 
wdth  us.  He  spreads  out  both  hands,  and  says,  "Now 
this  shall  be  very  plain.  In  that  hand  are  pardon,  and 
peace,  and  life,  and  the  treasures  of  heaven  ;  in  that  hand 
are  punishment,  and  sorrow,  and  woe.  Choose,  choose 
for  yourselves!"  "He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized 
shall  be  saved,  but  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be 
damned." 

Oh,  my  dear  friends,  I  wish  I  could  this  morning  coax 
you  to  accept  this  Gospel.  If  you  could  just  take  one 
look  in  this  laver  of  looking-glasses  spoken  of  in  the 
text,  you  would  begin  now  spiritual  ablution.  You  will 
not  feel  insulted,  will  you,  when  I  tell  you  that  you  are 
a  lost  soul  without  pardon?  Christ  offers  all  the  gener- 
osity of  his  nature  to  you  this  morning.  The  love  of 
Christ — I  dare  not,  toward  the  close  of  my  sermon,  be- 
gin to  tell  about  it.     The  love  of  Christ!     Do  not  talk 


THE  LAYER  OF  LOOKING-GLASSES.  185 

to  me  about  a  mountain  ;  it  is  higher  than  that.     Do  not 
talk  to  me  about  a  sea;  it  is  deeper  than  that. 

An  artist  in  his  dreams  saw  such  a  splendid  dream  of 
the  transfiguration  of  Christ  that  he  awoke  and  seized  his 
pencil,  and  said,  "  Let  me  paint  this  and  die."  Oh,  I  have 
seen  the  glories  of  Christ!  I  have  beheld  something  of 
the  beauty  of  that  great  sacrifice  on  Calvary,  and  I  have 
sometimes  felt  I  would  be  willing  to  give  any  thing  if  I 
might  just  sketch  before  you  the  wonders  of  that  sacri- 
fice. I  would  like  to  do  it  while  I  live,  and  I  would  like 
to  do  it  when  I  die.  "  Let  me  paint  this  and  die !"  He 
comes  along,  weary  and  worn,  his  face  wet  with  tears, 
his  brow  crimson  with  blood,  and  he  lies  down  on  Cal- 
vary for  you.  No,  I  mistake.  Kothing  was  as  comfort- 
able as  that.  A  stone  on  Calvary  would  have  made  a 
soft  pillow  for  the  dying  head  of  Christ.  Nothing  so 
comfortable  as  that.  He  does  not  lie  down  to  die;  he 
stands  up  to  die;  his  spiked  hands  outspread  as  if  to  em- 
brace a  world.  Oh,  what  a  hard  end  for  these  feet  that 
had  traveled  all  over  Judea  on  ministries  of  mercy! 
What  a  hard  end  for  those  hands  that  had  wiped  away 
tears  and  bound  up  broken  hearts !  Very  hard,  oh  dying 
Lamb  of  God!  and  yet  there  are  those  here  this  morning 
who  do  not  love  thee.  They  say,  "  What  is  that  all  to 
me?  What  if  He  does  weep,  and  groan,  and  die,  I  don't 
want  Him."  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  they  will  not  help  thee 
down  from  the  cross !  The  soldiers  will  come,  and  they 
will  tear  thee  down  from  the  cross,  and  put  their  arms 
around  thee  and  lower  thee  into  the  tomb;  but  they  will 
not  help.  They  see  nothing  to  move  them.  Oh  dying 
Christ!  turn  on  them  thine  eyes  of  affection  now,  and 
see  if  they  will  not  change  their  minds! 


186  THE  LAYER   OF  LOOKING-GLASSES. 

"I  saw  One  lianging  on  a  tree, 
In  agony  and  blood, 
Who  fixed  his  languid  eyes  on  me, 
As  near  his  cross  I  stood. 

*'  Oh,  never  till  my  latest  breath 
Will  I  forget  that  look ! 
He  seemed  to  charge  me  with  his  death, 
Though  not  a  word  he  spoke. " 

And  that  is  all  for  you !  Ob,  can  you  not  love  him? 
Come  around  this  laver,  old  and  young.  It  is  so  burnish- 
ed, you  can  see  your  sins;  and  so  deep,  you  can  wash  them 
all  away.  Oh  mourner,  here  bathe  your  bruised  soul; 
and,  sick  one,  here  cool  your  hot  temples  in  this  laver. 
Peace!  Do  not- cry  any  more,  dear  soul!  Pardon  for 
all  thy  sins,  comfort  for  all  thy  afflictions.  The  black 
cloud  that  hung  thundering  over  Sinai  has  floated  above 
Calvary,  and  burst  into  the  shower  of  a  Saviour's  tears. 

I  saw  in  Kensington  Garden,  London,  a  picture  of 
Waterloo  a  good  while  after  the  battle  had  passed,  and 
the  grass  had  grown  all  over  the  field.  There  was  a  dis- 
mounted cannon,  and  a  lamb  had  come  up  from  the  pas- 
ture and  lay  sleeping  in  the  mouth  of  that  cannon.  So 
the  artist  had  represented  it — a  most  suggestive  thing. 
Then  I  thought  how  the  war  between  God  and  the  soul 
had  ended ;  and  instead  of  the  announcement,  "  The  wages 
of  sin  is  death,"  there  came  the  words,  "  My  peace  I  give 
unto  thee ;"  and  amidst  the  batteries  of  the  law  that  had 
once  quaked  with  the  fiery  hail  of  death,  I  beheld  the 
Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world. 

"I  went  to  Jesus  as  I  was, 

Weary,  and  worn,  and  sad :  • 
I  found  in  him  a  resting-place, 
And  he  has  made  me  glad." 


CMUMBIS  UNDER  THE  TABLE.  187 


CRUMBS  UNDER  THE  TABLE. 

"But  he  answered  and  said,  It  is  not  meet  to  take  the  children's  bread, 
and  to  cast  it  to  dogs.  And  she  said,  Truth,  Lord :  yet  the  dogs  eat  of 
the  crumbs  which  fall  from  their  masters'  table.  Then  Jesus  answered 
and  said  unto  her,  0  woman,  great  is  thy  faith :  be  it  unto  thee  even  as 
thou  wilt.  And  her  daughter  was  made  whole  from  that  very  hour. — 
Matthew  xv.,  26-28. 

IT  was  a  Sabbatb  afternoon  in  the  Belleville  parsonage. 
I  had  been  trying  for  two  years  to  preach,  but  to  me 
the  Christian  life  had  been  nothing  but  a  straggle.  I  sat 
down  at  the  table,  took  up  my  Bible,  and  asked  for  di- 
vine illumination,  and  it  poured  like  sunlight  upon  my 
soul  through  the  story  of  the  Syrophenician  woman. 

This  woman  was  a  mother,  and  she  had  an  afflicted 
daughter.  The  child  had  a  virulent,  exasperating,  con- 
vulsive disease,  called  the  possession  of  the  devil.  The 
mother  was  just  like  other  mothers;  she  had  no  peace 
as  long  as  her  child  was  sick.  She  was  a  Gentile,  and 
the  Jews  had  such  a  perfect  contempt  for  the  Gentiles 
that  they  called  them  dogs.  Nevertheless,  she  comes  to 
Christ,  and  asks  his  help  in  her  family  troubles.  Christ 
makes  no  answer.  The  people  are  afraid  there  is  going 
to  be  a  "  scene  "  there,  and  they  try  to  get  the  woman, 
out  of  Christ's  presence;  but  he  forbids  her  expulsion. 
Then  she  falls  down  and  repeats  her  request.  Christ,  to 
rally  her  earnestness,  and  to  make  his  mercy  finally  more 
conspicuous,  addresses  her,  saying,  "It  is  not  meet  to 
take  the  children's  bread" — that  is,  the  salvation  ap- 


188  CRUMBS  UNDER  THE  TABLE. 

pointed  for  the  Jews — "and  cast  it  to  dogs" — the  Gen- 
tiles. Christ  did  not  mean  to  characterize  that  woman 
as  a  dog.  That  would  have  been  most  unlike  him,  who 
from  the  cross  said,  "Behold  thy  mother."  His  whole 
life  so  gentle  and  so  loving,  he  could  not  have  given  it 
out  as  his  opinion  that  that  was  what  she  ought  to  be 
called;  but  he  was  only  employing  the  ordinary  parlance 
of  the  Jews  in  regard  to  the  Gentiles.  Yet  that  mother 
was  not  to  be  put  off,  pleading  as  she  was  for  the  life  of 
her  daughter;  she  was  not  to  be  rebuffed,  she  was  not 
to  be  discouraged.  She  says,  "Yea,  Lord, I  acknowledge 
I  am  a  Gentile  dog,  but  I  remember  that  even  the  dogs 
have  some  privileges,  and  when  the  door  is  open  they 
slink  in  and  they  crawl  under  the  table,  and  when  the 
bread  or  the  meat  sifts  through  the  cracks  of  the  table, 
or  falls  off*  the  edge  of  it,  they  pick  it  up,  and  the  master 
of  the  house  is  not  angry  with  them.  I  don't  ask  for  a 
big  loaf;  I  don't  ask  even  for  a  big  slice;  I  only  ask  for 
that  which  drops  down  through  the  chinks  of  the  ta- 
ble— the  dogs'  portion.  It  is  the  crumbs  I  am  after." 
Christ  felt  the  wit  and  the  earnestness  and  the  stratagem 
and  the  faith  of  that  woman.  He  turns  upon  her,  and 
says,  "You  have  conquered  me;  your  daughter  is  well 
now.  Go  home,  mother;  but  before  you  get  there  she 
will  come  down,  skipping  out  to  meet  you." 

There  I  see  the  mother  going.  She  feels  twenty  3^ears 
younger — getting  on  in  life,  but  she  goes  with  a  half-run. 
Amidst  an  outburst  of  hysterical  laughter  and  tears  they 
meet.  The  mother  breaks  down  every  time  she  tries  to 
tell  it;  the  daughter  with  cheeks  as  rosy  as  before  she 
fell  in  the  first  fit;  the  doctors  of  the  village  prophesy- 
ing that  the  cure  will  not  last,  because  it  was  not  accord* 


CKUMBS   UNDER  THE  TABLE.  189 

ing  to  their  prescription.  But  I  read  in  the  oldest  med- 
ical journal  of  the  world,  "  The  daughter  was  made  whole 
from  that  very  hour." 

In  the  first  place,  I  learn  from  my  subject  that  sin 
treats  us  like  a  dog — not  as  dogs  are  now  treated.  Land- 
seer,  in  his  pictures,  makes  princes  of  all  the  canine  fam- 
ily. You  sometimes  find  the  kennel  lined  and  cushion- 
ed. The  St.  Bernard  dogs  are  admired  all  the  woi'ld 
over.  There  is  one  of  them  wnth  a  collar  on  his  neck 
inscribed  with  the  names  of  twenty-five  persons  whose 
lives  he  saved  from  the  snow.  The  sagacity  and  faith- 
fulness and  kindness  of  the  dog  have  conquered  the  re- 
spect of  the  world.  He  dashes  from  the  ship's  deck  to 
save  the  life  of  the  man  overboard.  He  rushes  into  the 
wild  surf  and  brings  ashore  the  exhausted  bather.  With 
his  wai'm  tongue  he  licks  into  life  the  freezing  wayfarer. 
From  the  Liffy  Bridge  a  child  fell  into  the  water.  A 
dog  stood  on  the  bridge  and  saw  it  fall,  and  leaped  after 
the  child  as  it  came  to  the  surface,  and  seizing  it  gently 
but  firmly,  brought  it  ashore.  A  gentleman  stood  on 
the  bridge,  looking  down  at  it,  and  said,  "How  very 
sagacious  that  dog  is  —  how  very  kind  and  faithful!'' 
But  he  was  thrilled  through  when  he  saw  it  was  his  own 
child  that  had  been  saved.  There  is  no  way  in  which 
you  can  so  deeply  offend  a  hunter  as  by  maltreating  his 
hounds.  The  finest  picture  in  the  room  of  Dr.  John 
Brown,  of  Edinburgh,  the  celebrated  author,  is  a  picture 
of  "Rab,"  the  dog  immortal.  Walter  Scott  sang  his 
praise.  The  mastiff,  lying,  toothless,  and  blind,  and  lame, 
on  the  door-mat,  is  the  pet  of  the  whole  household. 

But  it  was  not  so  in  the  time  of  Christ,  nor  is  it  so  in 
the  East  to-day.     That  whole  land  is  filled  with  mean 


190  CRUMBS  UNDER  THE  TABLE. 

curs;  they  are  foul  and  vermin-covered  and  snarly,  and 
the  most  significant  thing  tiiat  a  Jew  could  say  about 
a  Gentile,  in  the  way  of  depicting  hatred,  was  to  call 
him  a  dog./  It  seems  as  if  the  sagacity  of  the  dog  were 
not  discovered  in  those  days.  Job  gives  him  a  kick  in 
his  thirtieth  chapter.  Abishai  said,  in  regard  to  David, 
"  Shall  this  dead  dog  curse  the  king  ?"  Goliath  said  to 
David,  "Am  I  a  dog,  that  thou  comest  out  against  me 
with  stones?"  Hazael,  wishing  to  depict  his  hatred  for 
some  kind  of  sin,  said,  "Is  thy  servant  a  dog,  that  he 
should  do  this  great  thing?"  Paul,  writing  to  the  Phi- 
lippians,  tried  to  set  forth  the  danger  of  consorting  with 
certain  persons,  and  said,  "Beware  of  dogs."  John,  in 
Revelation,  describing  the  fact  that  the  abandoned  and 
the  dissolute  and  the  sinful  shall  finally  be  thrust  out  of 
heaven,  says,  "Without  are  dogs."  This  I  say  to  show 
you  what  intense  hatred  the  Jew  of  olden  time  had 
against  the  Gentile.  You  must  all  admit  that  it  must 
have  been  a  positively  sinful  hatred,  and  so  through  my 
subject,  the  first  lesson  I  learn  is  that  sin  treats  us  like  a 
dog.  It  may  flatter  you  for  a  while ;  it  may  caress  you 
for  a  while;  but  no  Eastern  traveler  ever  more  merci- 
lessly beat  a  whelp  in  the  streets  of  Beirut  or  Damascus 
than  sin  will  beat  you  and  me  if  it  gets  a  chance.  "  The 
way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard." 

Sill  is  a  scarification  of  the  soul.  Sin  comes  to  the 
young  man.  It  says,  "  Take  a  game  of  cards — it  won't 
hurt  you.  Besides  that,  it  is  the  way  men  make  their 
fortune."  It  is  only  a  small  stake.  See  how  easy  it  is. 
The  young  man  plays  and  wins  a  horse  and  carriage  and 
a  house — wins  a  fortune!  "See  how  easy  it  is,"  says 
sin  ;  "  it  don't  cost  you  any  thing !    Look  at  those  young 


CRUMBS  UNDER  THE  TABLE.  191 

men  who  stick  to  their  salaries,  away  down  at  the  foot 
of  the  ladder,  while  you  are  in  great  prosperity."  The 
young  man  is  encouraged.  He  goes  on,  and  plays  larger 
and  larger;  the  tide  turns  against  him;  he  loses  the 
horse,  loses  the  carriage,  loses  the  house,  loses  the  for- 
tune. Crack!  goes  the  sheriff's  mallet  on  the  last  house- 
hold valuable.  Down  lower  and  lower  the  man  falls, 
until  he  pitches  pennies  for  a  drink,  or  clutches  for  dev- 
ils that  trample  him  in  wild  delirium.  "  The  way  of  the 
transgressor  is  hard." 

Sin  comes  to  a  young  man  and  says,  "Take  this  glass 
— it  won't  hurt  you.  It  has  a  very  fine  flavor.  Take  a 
glass  in  the  morning;  it  will  be  an  appetizer.  Take  a 
glass  at  noon  ;  it  will  aid  digestion.  Take  a  glass  at 
night;  it  will  make  you  sleep  well."  You  are  in  a  glow, 
while  others  are  chilly.  How  bright  it  makes  the  eye — 
how  elastic  it  makes  the  step!  One  day  you  meet  him, 
and  you  say,  "  What  are  you  doing  here  at  noon  ?  I 
thought  you  were  at  business."  "Oh,  I  lost  my  place." 
"Lost  your  place?"  God  have  mercy  upon  the  young 
man  when,  through  misdemeanor,  he  loses  his  place! 
Every  temptation  in  hell  takes  after  hmi.  Hoppled  and 
handcuffed,  at  thirty  years  of  age,  by  evil  habit!  Save 
that  young  man;  he  is  on  the  express  train  that  stops 
not  until  it  tumbles  over  the  embankment  of  perdition. 
*'  The  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard." 

Sin  comes  to  a  young  man,  and  sa\^s,  "  Take  a  dollar 
out  of  your  employer's  drawer;  he  won't  miss  it;  you 
can  put  it  back  after  a  -while.  Take  another!  take  an- 
other! Don't  you  see  how  easy  it  is?  Hundreds  of 
dollars  added  to  your  salary  in  a  year!"  One  day  the 
police   knock   at   the    door,  and    say,  "I    want   you.'* 


192  CRUMBS  UNDER  THE  TABLE. 

"What!"  "I  want  you."  Discovery  has  come;  dis- 
grace, imprisonment,  loss  of  the  soul.  "  The  way  of  tlie 
transgressor  is  hard." 

But  you  need  not  look  through  the  wicket  of  the 
prison  to  learn  this,  and  to  find  the  frozen  feet,  and  the 
bruised  brow,  and  to  hear  the  coughing  lungs,  resulting 
from  crime.  Every  man  has  found  out  in  his  own  expe- 
rience that  "The  w^ay  of  the  transgressor  is  hard."  Sin 
demeans  us,  sin  is  cruel,  sin  is  desperate — it  lacerates,  it 
mauls  the  soul,  it  chains  you  like  a  dog,  it  drives  you  out 
like  a  dog,  it  throws  refuse  to  you  like  a  dog,  it  whips 
you  with  innumerable  stripes  like  a  dog.  There  is  a 
legend  abroad,  of  some  one  of  whom  it  was  foretold  that 
she  would  die  of  a  serpent's  bite.  The  father,  to  keep 
her  away  from  that,  built  a  castle  far  out  in  the  sea.  He 
said  no  serpent  could  crawl  there;  but  one  day  a  boat 
came  under  the  castle,  and  the  daughter  saw  grapes  in  it, 
and,  letting  down  a  rope,  she  got  tlie  grapes,  and  w^as  eat- 
ing them,  when  she  found  a  serpent  entwined  in  the  clus- 
ters. It  stung  her,  and  she  died.  Sin  may  seem  luscious 
and  ripe,  and  to  have  all  the  wealth  of  the  vineyard,  but 
at  the  last  "it  biteth  like  a  serpent,  and  stingeth  like  an 
adder."  Oh,  have  nothing  to  do  with  its  approaches. 
It  promises  you  a  robe ;  it  will  cover  you  with  rags.  It 
offers  you  a  chalice  of  luxurious  beverage;  it  will  fill 
you  with  wormwood.  It  promises  you  a  throne ;  it  will 
drive  you  into  a  kennel. 

Again,  my  subject  shows  you  Jesus  with  Ms  hack  turned. 
That  woman  came  to  him  and  said,  "Lord,  spare  the  life 
of  my  child;  it  will  not  cost  you  any  thing."  Jesus  turns 
his  back.  He  throws  positive  discouragement  upon  her 
petition.     Jesus  stood  with  his /ace  to  blind  Bartimeus, 


CRUMBS   UNDER  THE  TABLE.  193 

and  the  foaming  demoniac,  and  the  limping  paralytic,  and 
the  sea  when  he  hushed  it,  and  the  grave  when  he  broke 
it ;  but  now  he  turns  his  back.  I  asked  an  artist,  a  day 
or  two  ago,  if  he  ever  saw  a  representation  of  Jesus  Christ 
•with  his  back  turned.  He  said,  no.  And  it  is  a  fact  that 
you  may  go  through  all  the  picture-galleries  of  London 
and  Dresden  and  Kome  and  Florence  and  Naples,  and 
you  will  find  Christ  with  full-face  and  profile,  but  nev- 
er with  his  back  turned.  Yet  here,  in  this  passage,  he 
turned  away  from  the  woman.  And  so,  some  of  you 
have  come  at  times  and  found  Jesus  with  his  face  away 
from  you.  Here  is  somebody  who  is  striving  to  be  a 
Christian.  He  has  cried  to  God  for  mercy,  and  he  has 
been  in  as  much  anxiety  about  his  soul  as  that  Syrophe- 
nician  woman  was  about  her  dauohter.  He  has  come  to 
Christ  and  said,  "  Lord,  look  this  way."  No  answer.  He 
said,  "Lord  Jesus  Christ,  look  this  way.  I  come  with  a 
soul  sin-sick.  Look  this  way."  What  did  Christ  say? 
"You  are  a  sinner,  you  are  a  vile  sinner,  you  are  a  con- 
demned sinner,  you  are  a  dying  sinner.  Do  you  expect 
all  the  glories  of  heaven  to  be  given  to  one  as  wayward 
as  you  have  been  ?"  But  do  not  be  discouraged,  oh  seek- 
ing soul!  put  down  the  pack  of  thy  sins  at  Jesus's  feet 
an3^how.  If  his  face  is  turned  away  from  thee,  then  put 
down  thy  pack  of  sins  at  his  heel.  Then,  if  perchance 
he  step  backward,  he  will  fiill  over  it  into  thine  out- 
stretched arms,  oh  waiting^  sinner!  Jesus  will  turn  his 
face  at  the  right  time.  Eemember  that  mercy  postponed 
is  mercy  augmented.  If  the  waters  of  thy  soul  come  to 
flood-tide,  they  will  break  away  the  dam.  If  the  arrow- 
head be  drawn  clear  back  to  the  bow,  it  is  only  that  it 
may  be  projected  fiirther.     If  Christ  turn  his  back  to 


194  CRUMBS  UNDER  THE  TABLE. 

thee,  it  is  only  that  the  dawn  on  his  face  may  be  more 
effulgent.  Oh,  what  are  a  few  days  or  hours  of  darkness 
and  struggle  compared  with  the  eternal  illumination! 
What  were  the  five  minutes  in  which  this  Syrophenician 
woman  stood  in  bitterness  behind  Jesus,  compared  with 
the  eighteen  hundred  years  in  which  she  has  rejoiced 
before  him?  Courage,  oh  sorrowing  soul!  "Weeping 
may  endure  for  a  night,  but  joy  cometh  in  the  morning." 
Many  a  man  has  put  his  hand  over  his  shoulder  to  find 
the  cross,  and  lo!  it  was  gone;  but  in  bringing  his  hand 
back  again,  he  has  struck  the  crown  on  his  head,  radiant 
with  pardon  and  glory.  I  see  horses  dashing  down  the 
street.  They  draw  a  chariot.  Who  is  in  it?  A  man 
with  a  bandage  over  his  mouth,  and  his  head  wnipped  in 
folds.  Who  is  it?  Naaman,  the  leper.  He  drives  up 
in  front  of  the  place  where  the  prophet  lives.  The  char- 
ioteer cries,  "Whoa!  Whoa!"  They  stop  there.  They 
wait  for  the  prophet  to  come  out.  He  does  not  come. 
He  merely  sends  word,  "Go  wash  in  the  Jordan,  and  thou 
shalt  be  healed."  And  so  we  come  for  Christ's  mercy. 
That  mercy  may  not  have  appeared  as  we  expected,  but 
let  us  be  willing  to  take  it  at  any  time  and  in  any  way 
it  shall  come.  Blessed  are  all  they  who  put  their  trust 
in  him. 

Again,  I  see  in  my  subject  Jesus  conquered  hy  a  human 
soul.  That  woman  said,  "  Take  this  disease  away  from  my 
daughter."  Christ  responded  to  her,  "It  is  not  meet  to 
take  the  children's  bread,  and  cast  it  to  dogs."  Then  she 
roused  her  soul  into  an  acuteness  of  expression  seldom 
equaled  by  poet  or  painter,  or  orator  or  satirist,  when  she 
said,  "Yea,  Lord,  but  even  the  dogs  eat  of  the  crumbs 
that  fall  from  their  master's  table."     Then  he  turned,  and 


-CRUMBS  UNDER  THE  TABLE.  195 

flung  pardon  and  healing  and  help  into  her  soul  with 
the  words,  "  0  woman  !  great  is  thy  faith ;  be  it  unto 
thee  even  as  thou  wilt.  And  her  daughter  was  made 
whole  from  that  very  hour."  I  have  talked  to  you  some- 
times of  Jesus,  the  conqueror.  Listen  now  about  Jesus, 
the  conquered.  You  have  seen  him  on  the  white  horse 
of  victory,  all  heaven  following  him  on  white  horses,  in 
his  right  hand  the  drawn  sword  of  universal  dominion ; 
the  moon  under  his  feet,  the  stars  his  tiara ;  the  sun  only 
the  rocket  shot  up  in  the  signal  -  service  of  his  great 
host;  burning  worlds  only  the  bonfires  of  his  victory. 
But  now  see  him  surrender — faith,  humility,  and  prayer 
triumphant. 

There  are  some  things  which  are  impossible  for  Christ: 
he  can  not  break  his  oath ;  he  can  not  despise  the  hum- 
ble ;  he  can  not  resist  the  cry  of  faith.  Heaven  sheathes 
its  sword.  It  seems  as  if  the  prayer  of  the  Syropheni- 
cian  woman  has  conquered  Omnipotence.  The  cavaliy 
troop  that  John  saw  coming  down  the  hills  of  heaven 
fall  back.  Behold  the  victories  of  prayer !  History  tells 
us  of  Queen  Caroline,  who,  in  1820,  tried  to  get  into  West- 
minster Abbey,  at  the  coronation  of  George  lY.,  her  of- 
fended husband.  With  six  shining  bays,  and  in  a  car- 
riage of  state,  she  rode  up  to  the  door.  She  tried  this 
door  ;  no  admittance.  She  tried  another  door ;  they  de- 
manded tickets.  She  came  to  another  door,  and  said, 
"Surely  you  will  not  keep  out  your  queen;"  but  they 
said,  "  We  have  no  orders  for  your  admittance."  So  she 
mounted  her  carriage  and  rode  away  in  derision.  Let 
me  say  that  the  attempt  to  get  into  the  temple  of  Christ's 
mercy  will  be  fruitless  if  we  come  with  pride  and  come 
in  pomp.     We  can  not  ride  through  the  gates  in  state — • 


196  CRUMBS  UNDER  THE  TABLE. 

we  can  not  come  with  plumes  or  pretension.  Eichly- 
robed  Qaeen  Caroline  failed  at  Westminster  Abbey  with 
George  lY. ;  but  the  Syrophenician  woman  of  the  text, 
at  the  door  of  Christ's  mercy,  succeeded  with  the  Lord 
of  earth  and  heaven.  She  wanted  only  the  crumbs — she 
is  invited  to  sit  up  as  a  banqueter.  Bitter  Valley  Forge 
comes  before  victorious  Yorktown.  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  large  enough  when  you  get  into  it,  but  the 
gate  is  so  low  that  you  can  not  come  in  save  on  your 
knees.  0  man!  0  woman  out  of  Christ  1  push  your 
way  this  day  into  that  kingdom.  With  earnest,  im- 
portunate, confident,  persistent  prayer  conquer  all  the 
obstacles  in  your  way.  I  suppose  that  the  people  who 
w^ere  standing  around  about  the  woman  and  around  about 
Christ  said,  "Don't  bother  Jesus  with  that  matter.  You 
can't  make  any  impression  on  him.  He  has  no  medi- 
cine. If  the  doctors  of  the  village  can't  cure  your  daugh- 
ter, Christ  can't  do  it ;  besides  that,  you  can  see,  from 
his  looks,  that  he  don't  care  any  thing  for  you."  The 
woman  knew  better.  With  prayer  she  seized  Christ, 
and  with  omnipotent  cure  Christ  seized  the  invalid,  and 
"she  was  made  whole  from  that  very  hour."  Oh,  bring 
the  diseases  of  your  body,  bring  the  diseases  of  your  soul, 
to  Christ  I  If  his  face  be  turned  away  from  you, keep  on 
until  he  shall  turn  his  face  to  you.  Persevere,  implore, 
beseech,  agonize,  and  conquer. 

Why,  my  friends,  you  talk  as  though  there  were  a 
greater  amount  of  perseverance  to  be  used  in  the  matter 
of  becoming  a  Christian  than  in  any  thing  else.  Let  me 
say,  you  have  five  hundred  times  in  your  life  exerted 
more  perseverance  and  put  forth  more  determination 
than  would  have  made  you  a  Christian.     You  put  it  out 


CRU2IBS  UNDER  TEE  TABLE.  197 

in  worldly  directions.  If  you  had  taken  a  thousandth 
part  of  your  worldly  earnestness,  and  with  it  gone  toward 
Christ,  you  would  have  found  him.  How  men  seek  for 
the  wealth  of  this  world !  Is  any  man  utterly  discour- 
aged if  he  does  not  make  a  fortune  this  year?  Does  he 
not  keep  on  trying  and  trying?  Who  here,  especially 
among  the  young,  has  given  up  the  idea  of  getting  at 
least  a  competency  ?  Not  one.  And  yet  how  treasures 
do  fall  out  by  the  way!  I  was  reading,  a  day  or  two 
ago,  of  the  fact  that  in  1861  there  were  in  this  country 
failures  in  business  amounting  to  two  hundred  millions 
of  dollars,  and  that  in  1857  there  were  failures  in  this 
country  amounting  to  two  hundred  and  ninetj^-seven  mill- 
ions of  dollars.  Yet  who  stopped  seeking  after  money? 
Let  me  tell  you  that  if  j^ou  had  sought  with  one-half  of 
the  earnestness  after  Christ  and  eternal  treasures  which 
characterized  your  search  for  earthly  perishables,  you 
would  long  ago  have  had  the  joy  and  peace  of  the  Gos- 
pel. So  it  is  with  the  honors  of  the  world.  How  men 
push  out  their  energies  in  that  direction,  and  toil  and 
drudge,  and  yet  how  little  they  are  worth  after  they  are 
gotten!  How  mightily  it  was  illustrated  in  the  history 
of  William  the  Conqueror.  The  world  bowed  down  be- 
fore him,  and  yet,  when  he  came  to  die,  the  rabble  rush- 
ed into  the  room  and  stole  the  pictures,  and  actually  stole 
the  last  shred  of  clothing  off  the  corpse  of  William  the 
Conqueror.  And  then,  when  they  came  to  bury  him  in 
the  chancel  of  the  church,  a  man  stood  up  with  a  strong 
protest  that  actually  staggered  back  the  pall-bearers  and 
procession,  and  inquired  why  such  a  miserable  carcass  as 
that  should  be  let  down  into  the  church  chancel  ?  All 
the  world  honoring  him  a  little  while  before — now  al] 


198  CBVMBS  UNDER  TEE  TABLE. 

the  glorj  departed  !  But  the  failure  of  the  world's  hon- 
ors have  not  discouraged  you  ;  you  have  pushed  on  after 
them.  When  I  see  that  one-half  of  that  energy  put  out 
in  the  direction  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  would  have 
brought  you  into  the  peace  and  the  life  of  the  Gospel,  I 
do  not  ask  you  to  exert  any  more  energy  in  the  divine 
direction  than  you  do  in  the  worldly  direction,  but  just 
as  much.  Strive  to  enter  into  the  straight  gate.  Take 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  violence.  Come  up  to  Christ 
as  this  Syrophenician  woman  did,  and  refuse  to  be  put 
off,  and  pray,  and  pray,  and  pray  again,  until  he  shall 
turn  his  face  of  benediction  and  mercy  upon  you. 

Are  you  sitting  here  this  morning  unmoved  while 
your  last  opportunity  of  salvation  is  going  away  from 
you?  Spring  is  coming.  Do  you  see  the  ice  going  out 
of  the  river?  You  see  the  snow  melting.  Soon  the 
voice  of  the  turtle  will  be  heard  in  the  land.  Are  there 
any  signs  that  the  winter  is  breaking  np  in  your  soul? 
Is  the  only  sound  there  that  of  the  bittern,  and  the  owl 
of  the  night,  and  the  petrel  crying  through  the  ever- 
lasting storm?  When  I  think  of  the  perils  that  hang 
around  those  who  have  not  secured  the  pardon  of  the 
Gospel,  I  feel  that  I  must  leave  the  platform  and  take 
you  by  the  shoulder,  and  cry  out  in  your  ear,  as  the  angel 
did  to  Lot,  "Escape  for  thy  life;  look  not  behind  thee, 
neither  stay  thou  in  all  the  plain ;  escape  to  the  mount- 
ain, lest  thou  be  consumed."  I  know  that  the  critics 
sometimes  say  I  am  too  importunate  in  pleading  with 
men  about  their  souls;  but  how  can  I  observe  formali- * 
ties  and  oratorical  proprieties  when  I  see  sitting  before 
me  thousands  within  a  short  time  of  hell  or  heaven? 

Will  you    be   like  the  Syrophenician   woman   upon 


CRUMBS  UNDER  THE  TABLE.  199 

whom  Christ  turned  his  back  ?  Oh,  he  will  not  turn  it 
for  five  minutes.  But  from  those  who  finally  reject 
him  Christ  will  tarn  away;  and  no  entreaty,  no  cry 
for  mercy,  no  groaning  will  win  his  favor.  The  har- 
vest will  be  past,  and  the  summer  ended,  and  the  day 
of  grace  gone  forever !  Can  that  be  all  true,  or  is  this 
a  fable?  Am  I  merely  imagining  it?  Will  there  be 
no  great  ordeal  when  you  and  I,  my  brethren,  must 
stand  naked  and  hear  our  doom — Christ  saying  to  some 
on  that  day,  "Come,  ye  blessed" — that  invitation  chim- 
ing like  the  very  bells  of  heaven  ?  Will  there  be  a 
cry,  "Depart,  ye  cursed?''  Coming  from  the  study  of 
the  Bible  this  morning  into  your  presence,  I  feel  over- 
whelmed by  these  truths,  and  I  cry  out,  If  the  Lord 
be  God,  follow  him.  Make  up  your  mind  whether  the 
Bible  is  right  or  not.  If  it  is  wrong,  quit  these  assem- 
blages;  they  do  not  amount  to  any  thing.  If  the  Bible 
is  wrong,  stop  praying;  it  does  not  amount  to  any  thing. 
But  if  it  is  all  truth,  if  I  am  an  immortal  man,  and  yet  a 
dying  man,  if  this  body  must  soon  perish,  and  then  my 
soul  rise  up  into  the  presence  of  Almighty  God,  and  stand 
before  him  in  judgment,  oh  let  me  appreciate  it,  and  let 
me  act  upon  it!  By  the  crushed  heart  of  the  Son  of 
God,  by  the  flaming  throne  of  heaven,  by  the  raging  fur- 
naces of  hell,  fly  for  thy  life!  "Let  the  wicked  forsake 
his  way."  I  do  not  ask  what  sins  you  have  committed. 
I  do  not  come  with  a  partial  Gospel.  I  do  not  say, 
"This  man  may  receive  the  Gospel,  and  for  that  man 
there  will  be  no  mercy."  I  tell  you  Christ's  arm  of 
mercy  is  stretched  out  for  enough  to  take  in  all  this 
audience,  saying,  "Whosoever  will,  let  him  take  the 
water  of  life  freel3^"    Did  you  ever  have  a  better  offer 

9 


200  CRUMBS  UNDER  THE  TABLE. 

than  that?  —  pardon  for  all  jour  sins,  comfort  for  all 
your  trouble,  shelter  in  all  your  temptations,  peace  when 
you  die,  and  joy  forever.  And  all  "  without  money 
and  without  price."  May  that  Almighty  Spirit,  with- 
out which  the  heart  stays  hard,  and  all  Christian  en- 
treaty is  unavailing — may  that  Spirit  this  morning  set 
before  you  the  stupendous  issue  of  this  hour.  Oh,  eter- 
nity !  where  shall  I  spend  it?  Where  will  you  spend 
it?  Oh,  eternity!  Joys  that  will  never  fade!  sorrows 
that  never  end! — which  shall  be  mine?  Which  shall 
be  yours? 


ORDERED  BACK  TO  THE  GUARD-ROOM.  201 


ORDERED  BACK  TO  THE  GUARD-ROOM. 

"Felix  trembled,  and  answered,  Go  thy  way  for  this  time  ;  when  I  have 
a  convenient  season,  I  will  call  for  thee."' — Acts  xxiv.,  25. 

A  CITY  of  marble  was  Cesarea — wharves  of  marble, 
houses  of  marble,  temples  of  marble.  This  being 
the  ordinary  architecture  of  the  place,  you  may  imagine 
something  of  the  splendor  of  Governor  Felix's  residence. 
In  a  room  of  that  palace,  floor  tesselated,  windows  cur- 
tained, ceiling  fretted,  the  whole  scene  affluent  with 
Tyrian  purple,  and  statues,  and  pictures,  and  carvings,  sat 
a  very  darlv-complexioned  man  by  the  name  of  Felix, 
and  beside  him  a  woman  of  extraordinary  beauty,  whom 
he  had  stolen  by  breaking  up  another  domestic  circle. 
She  was  only  eighteen  years  of  age,  a  princess  by  birth, 
and  unwittingly  waiting  for  her  doom  —  that  of  being 
buried  alive  in  the  ashes  and  scoria  of  Mount  Vesuvius, 
which  in  sudden  eruption,  one  day,  put  an  end  to  her 
abominations.  Well,  one  afternoon,  Drusilla,  seated  in 
the  palace,  weary  with  the  magnificent  stupidities  of  the 
place,  says  to  Felix:  "You  have  a  very  distinguished 
prisoner,  I  believe,  by  the  name  of  Paul.  Do  you  know 
he  is  one  of  my  countrymen?  I  should  very  much  like 
to  see  him,  and  I  should  very  much  like  to  hear  him 
speak,  for  I  have  heard  so  much  about  his  eloquence. 
Besides  that,  the  other  day,  when  he  was  being  tried  in 
another  room  of  this  palace,  and  the  windows  were  open, 
I  heard  the  applause  that  greeted  the  speech  of  Lawyer 


202  OBDEBED  BACK  TO  THE  GUABD-BOOM. 

Tertullus,  as  he  denounced  Paul.  Now,  I  verj  mucli 
wish  I  could  hear  Paul  speak.  Won't  you  let  me  hear 
him  speak?"  "Yes,"  said  Felix,  "I  will.  I  will  order 
him  up  now  from  the  guard-room."  Clank,  clank,  comes 
a  chain  up  the  marble  stairway,  and  there  is  a  shuffle  at 
the  door,  and  in  comes  Paul,  a  little  old  man,  premature- 
ly old  through  exposure — only  sixty  years  of  age,  but 
looking  as  though  he  were  eighty.  He  bows  very  courte- 
ously before  the  Governor  and  the  beautiful  woman  by 
his  side.  They  say  :  "  Paul,  we  have  heard  a  great  deal 
about  your  speaking ;  give  us  now  a  specimen  of  your 
eloquence."  Oh !  if  there  ever  was  a  chance  for  a  man 
to  show  off,  Paul  had  a  chance  there.  He  might  have 
harangued  them  about  Grecian  art,  about  the  wonderful 
■water-works  he  had  seen  at  Corinth,  about  the  Acropolis 
by  moonlight,  about  prison  life  in  Philippi,  about  "  what 
I  saw  in  Thessalonica,"  about  the  old  mythologies ;  but 
"No!"  Paul  said  to  himself:  "I  am  now  on  the  way  to 
martyrdom,  and  this  man  and  woman  will  soon  be  dead, 
and  this  is  my  only  opportunity  to  talk  to  them  about 
the  things  of  eternity."  And  just  there  and  then,  there 
broke  in  upon  the  scene  a  peal  of  thunder.  It  was  the 
voice  of  a  judgment-day  speaking  through  the  words  of 
the  decrepit  apostle.  As  that  grand  old  missionary  pro- 
ceeded with  his  remarks,  the  stoop  begins  to  go  out  of 
his  shoulders,  and  he  rises  up,  and  his  countenance  is  il- 
lumined with  the  glories  of  a  future  life,  and  his  shackles 
rattle  and  grind  as  he  lifts  his  fettered  arm,  and  with  it 
hurls  upon  his  abashed  auditors  the  bolts  of  God's  in- 
dignation. Felix  grew  very  white  about  the  lips.  His 
heart  beat  unevenly.  He  put  his  hand  to  his  brow,  as 
though  to  stop  the  quickness  and  violence  of  his  thoughts. 


ORDERED  BACK  TO  THE  QUARD-ROOM.  203 

He  drew  his  robe  tighter  about  him,  as  under  a  sudden 
chill.  His  eyes  glare  and  his  knees  shake,  and,  as  he 
clutches  the  side  of  his  chair  in  a  very  paroxysm  of  ter- 
ror, he  orders  the  sheriff  to  take  Paul  back  to  the  gu'ard- 
room.  ^'  Felix  trembled,  and  said.  Go  thy  way  for  this 
time ;  when  I  have  a  convenient  season,  I  will  call  for 
thee."  A  young  man  came  one  night  to  our  services, 
with  pencil  in  hand,  to  caricature  the  whole  scene,  and 
make  mirth  of  those  who  should  express  any  anxiety 
about  their  souls;  but  I  met  him  at  the  door,  his  face 
very  white,  tears  running  down  his  cheek,  as  he  said, 
"  Do  you  think  there  is  any  chance  for  me?"  Felix  trem- 
bled, and  so  may  God  grant  it  may  be  here  to-night! 

I  propose  to  give  you  two  or  three  reasons  why  I 
think  Felix  sent  Paul  back  to  the  guard-room,  and  ad- 
journed this  whole  subject  of  religion.  The  first  rea- 
son was,  he  did  not  want  to  give  up  his  si7is.  He  looked 
around ;  there  was  Drusilla.  He  knew  that  when  he 
became  a  Christian,  he  must  send  her  back  to  Azizus, 
her  lawful  husband,  and  he  said  to  himself,  "I  will  risk 
the  destruction  of  my  immortal  soul,  sooner  than  I  will 
do  that."  How  many  there  are  now  who  can  not  get  to 
be  Christians,  because  they  will  not  abandon  their  sins! 
In  vain  all  their  prayers  and  all  their  church-going. 
You  can  not  keep  these  darling  sins  and  win  heaven; 
and  to-night  some  of  you  will  have  to  decide  between 
the  wine-cup,  and  unlawful  amusements,  and  lascivious 
gratifications  on  the  one  hand,  and  eternal  salvation  on 
the  other.  Delilah  sheared  the  locks  of  Samson  ;  Salome 
danced  Herod  into  the  pit ;  Drusilla  blocked  up  the  way 
to  heaven  for  Felix;  and  unless  some  of  you  repent,  you 
shall  likewise  perish.     Yet  when  I  present  the  subject 


204  ORDERED  BACK  TO  THE  GUARD-ROOM. 

to-night,  I  fear  that  some  of  you  will  say,  "Not  quite 
yet.  Don't  be  so  precipitate  in  your  demands.  I  have 
a  few  tickets  yet  that  I  have  to  use.  I  have  a  few  en- 
gagements that  I  must  keep.  I  want  to  stay  a  little 
longer  in  the  whirl  of  conviviality — a  few  more  guffaws 
of  unclean  laughter,  a  few  more  steps  on  the  road  to 
death,  and  then,  sir,  I  will  listen  to  what  you  sa}^.  'Go 
thy  way  for  this  time ;  when  I  have  a  convenient  season, 
I  will  call  for  thee.' "  Do  you  know  that  your  boat  is 
on  the  edge  of  the  maelstrom,  and  that  the  foam  on  the 
wave  is  the  frothing  lip  of  the  destroj^ed ;  and  that  the 
gleam  in  the  water  is  the  glaring  eyeballs  of  the  ban- 
ished ;  and  that  the  roar  of  the  wave  is  the  groan  of  the 
damned  ?  Oh,  I  know  that  it  is  a  great  deal  easier,  when 
you  are  in  a  boat,  to  pull  ahead  the  same  way  you  are 
going;  but  if  to-night  you  see  that  you  are  within  a  few 
yards  of  the  vortex,  and  that  this  may  be  your  last  hour 
— aye,  your  last  moment,  you  had  better  turn  around 
in  the  boat,  you  had  better  clutch  with  both  hands  the 
handles  of  the  oars,  as  with  a  death  grip,  and,  putting 
the  blades  down  into  the  black  waters,  pull  for  your 
eternal  life,  crying,  "Lord,  save  me,  I  perish  !"  Can  you 
not  offer  such  a  prayer  to-night,  oh  man  !  long  wander- 
ing away  from  your  God?  Who  is  that  I  see  running 
up  and  down  in  the  prison-house  of  the  lost,  now  trying 
to  break  through  this  gate,  and  failing,  turning  around 
and  rushing  to  the  other  gate,  and  beating  against  it, 
and  in  despair  crying,  "Let  me  get  out?"  Who  is  it? 
Some  soul  to-night  that  will  not  give  up  his  indulgences; 
some  soul  to-night  that  is  bound  hand  and  foot  by  the 
powers  of  darkness ;  some  soul  here  that  has  a  darling 
sin  that  he  will  not  sacrifice,  and  who  says  to  me,  when 


OMDEMED  BACK  TO  THE  GUARD-ROOM.  205 

I  present  the  great  themes  of  God  and  eternity  to  his 
soul,  "Not  yet;  go  thy  way  for  this  time;  when  I  have 
a  convenient  season,  I  will  call  for  thee." 

Another  reason  why  Felix  sent  Paul  back  to  the 
guard-room  and  adjourned  this  subject  was,  he  ivas  so 
very  busy.  In  ordinary  times  he  found  the  affairs  of 
state  absorbing,  but  those  were  extraordinary  times.  The 
whole  land  was  ripe  for  insurrection.  The  Sicarii,  a 
band  of  assassins,  were  already  prowling  around  the  pal- 
ace, and  I  suppose  he  thought,  "  I  can't  attend  to  religion 
while  I  am  so  pressed  by  affairs  of  state."  It  was  bus- 
iness, among  other  things,  that  ruined  his  soul,  and  I  sup- 
pose there  are  three  thousand  people  in  this  house  to- 
night who  are  not  children  of  God  because  they  have  so 
much  business.  It  is  business  in  the  store — losses,  gains, 
unfaithful  emploj-es.  It  is  business  in  your  law  of&ce 
— subpoenas,  writs  you  have  to  write  out,  papers  you 
have  to  file,  arguments  you  have  to  make.  It  is  your 
medical  profession,  with  its  broken  nights,  and  the  ex- 
hausting anxieties  of  life  hanging  upon  your  treatment 
It  is  your  real  estate  office,  your  business  with  landlords 
and  tenants,  and  the  failure  of  men  to  meet  their  obliga- 
tions with  you.  Ay,  with  some  of  those  who  are  here, 
it  is  the  annoyance  of  the  kitchen,  and  the  sitting-room, 
and  the  parlor — the  wearing  economy  of  trying  to  meet 
large  expenses  with  a  small  income.  Ten  thousand 
voices  of  "  business,  business,  business,"  drown  the  voice 
of  the  Eternal  Spirit,  silencing  the  voice  of  the  advan- 
cing judgment-day,  overcoming  the  voice  of  an  agoniz- 
ing eternity ;  and  they  can  not  hear,  they  can  not  listen. 
They  say,  "  Go  thy  way  for  this  time."  Some  of  you 
look  upon  ypur  goods,  you  look  upon  your  profession, 


206      OMDEBED  BACK  TO  THE  QUARD-ROOM. 

you  look  upon  your  memorandum-books,  and  you  see 
the  demands  that  are  made  this  very  week  upon  your 
time  and  your  patience  and  your  money;  and  while  I  am 
entreating  you  about  your  soul  and  the  danger  of  pro- 
crastination, you  say,  "Go  thy  way  for  this  time;  when 
I  have  a  convenient  season,  I  will  call  for  thee."  Oh  Fe- 
lix, why  be  bothered  about  the  affairs  of  this  world  so 
much  more  than  about  the  affairs  of  glory  or  perdition? 
Do  you  not  know  that  when  death  comes  you  will  have 
to  stop  business,  though  it  be  in  the  most  exacting  period 
of  it — between  the  payment  of  the  money  and  the  tak- 
ing of  the  receipt.  The  moment  he  comes  you  will  have 
to  go.  Death  waits  for  no  man,  however  high,  how- 
ever low.  Will  you  put  your  office,  will  you  put  your 
shop  in  comparison  with  the  affairs  of  an  eternal  world? 
affairs  that  involve  thrones,  palaces,  dominions  eternal. 
Will  you  put  two  hundred  acres  of  ground  against  im- 
mensity ?  Will  you  put  forty  or  fifty  years  of  your  life 
against  millions  of  ages?  Oh  Felix,  you  might  better 
postpone  every  thing  else  !  for  do  you  not  know  that  the 
upholstering  of  Tyrian  purple  in  your  palace  will  fade, 
and  the  marble  blocks  of  Cesarea  will  crumble,  and  the 
breakwater  at  the  beach,  made  of  great  blocks  of  stone 
sixty  feet  long,  must  give  way  before  the  perpetual  wash 
of  the  sea ;  but  the  redemption  that  Paul  offers  5^ou 
will  be  forever?  and  yet,  and  yet,  and  yet  you  wave  him 
back  to  the  guard-room,  saying,  "  Go  thy  way  for  this 
time ;  when  I  have  a  convenient  season,  I  will  call  for 
thee." 

Again,  Felix  adjourned  this  subject  of  religion  and 
put  off  Paul's  argument,  because  he  could  not  give  up  the 
honors  of  the  world.     He  was  afraid  somehow  he  would 


ORDERED  BACK  TO  THE  GUARD-ROOM.  207 

be  compromised  himself  in  this  matter.  Eem.arks  he 
made  afterward  showed  him  to  be  intensely  ambitious. 
Oh  how  he  hugged  the  favor  of  men ! 

I  never  saw  the  honors  of  this  world  in  their  hollowness 
and  hypocrisy  so  much  as  I  have  seen  them  within  the 
last  few  days,  as  I  have  been  looking  over  the  life  and 
death  of  that  wonderful  man  just  departed,  Charles  Sum- 
ner. Now  that  he  is  dead,  the  whole  nation  takes  off  the 
hat.  As  he  goes  out  toward  the  place  of  burial,  even  In- 
dependence Hall,  in  Philadelphia,  asks  that  his  remains 
may  stop  there  on  their  way  to  Boston.  The  flags  are  at 
half-mast,  and  the  minute-guns  on  Boston  Common  throb, 
now  that  his  heart  has  ceased  to  beat.  Was  it  always 
so?  While  he  lived,  how  censured  of  legislative  reso- 
lutions, how  caricatured  of  the  pictorials;  how  charged 
with  every  motive  mean  and  ridiculous;  how  all  the 
urns  of  scorn  and  hatred  and  billingsgate  emptied  upon 
his  head ;  how,  when  struck  down  in  Senate  chamber, 
there  were  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  who  said, 
"Good  for  him,  served  him  right!"  how,  summer  before 
last,  he  had  to  put  the  ocean  between  him  and  his  ma- 
ligners,  that  he  might  have  a  little  peace,  and  how,  when 
he  went  off  sick,  they  said  he  was  broken-hearted  because 
he  could  not  get  to  be  President  or  Secretary  of  State. 
Oh  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts !  who  is  that  man 
that  sleeps  to-night  in  your  public  hall,  covered  with  gar- 
lands and  wrapped  in  the  stars  and  stripes?  Is  that  the 
man  who,  only  a  few  months  ago,  you  denounced  as  the 
foe  of  republican  and  democratic  institutions?  Is  that 
the  same  man?  You  were  either  wrong  then  or  you  are 
wrong  now — a  thing  most  certain,  oh  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts!     Ye  American  people,  ye  can  not,  by  one 

9^ 


208      ORDERED  BACK  TO  THE  GUARD-ROOM. 

week  of  funeral  eulogium  and  newspaper  leaders,  wliicb 
the  dead  senator  can  neither  read  nor  hear,  atone  for 
twenty-five  years  of  maltreatment  and  caricature.  When 
I  see  a  man  like  that,  pursued  by  all  the  hounds  of  the 
political  kennel  so  long  as  he  lives,  and  then  buried 
under  great  piles  of  garlands,  and  amidst  the  lamenta- 
tions of  a  whole  nation,  I  say  to  myself,  What  an  un- 
utterably hypocritical  thing  is  all  human  .applause  and 
all  human  favor!  You  took  twenty-five  years  in  trying 
to  pull  down  his  fame,  and  now  you  will  take  twenty-five 
years  in  trying  to  build  his  monument.  You  were  either 
wrong  then,  or  you  are  wrong  now.  My  friends,  was 
there  ever  a  better  commentary  on  the  hollowness  of  all 
earthly  favor?  If  there  are  young  men  in  this  house 
who  are  postponing  religion  in  order  that  they  may  have 
the  favors  of  this  world,  let  me  persuade  them  of  their 
complete  folly.  If  you  are  looking  forward  to  guberna- 
torial, senatorial,  or  presidential  chair,  let  me  show  you 
your  great  mistake.  Can  it  be  that  now  in  the  presence 
of  these  great  national  solemnities  there  is  any  young 
man  saying,  "Let  me  have  some  political  office,  let  me 
have  some  of  these  high  positions  of  trust  and  power, 
and  then  I  will  attend  to  religion  ;  but  not  now.  '  Go 
thy  way  for  this  time ;  when  I  have  a  convenient  season, 
I  will  call  for  thee!'" 

And  now  my  subject  takes  a  deeper  tone,  and  it  shows 
what  a  dangerous  thing  is  this  deferring  of  religion. 
When  Paul's  chain  rattled  down  the  marble  stairs  of 
Felix,  that  was  Felix's  last  chance  for  heaven.  Judg- 
ing from  his  character  afterward,  he  was  reprobate  and 
abandoned. 

It  is  eighteen  centuries  now  since  Felix  lost  his  soul ; 


ORDEliED  BACK  TO   THE  GUAED-ROOM.  209 

it  is  lost  yet.  I  suppose  that  Drusilla  went  to  the  same 
place.  One  d^y  in  Southern  Italy  there  was  a  trembling 
of  the  earth,  and  the  air  got  black  with  smoke  intershot 
with  liquid  rocks,  and  Yesuvius  rained  upon  her  and 
upon  her  son  a  horrible  tempest  of  ashes  and  fire.  They 
did  not  reject  religion ;  they  only  put  it  off.  They  did 
not  understand  that  that  day,  that  that  hour  when  Paul 
stood  before  them,  was  the  pivotal  hour  upon  which  ev- 
ery thing  was  poised,  and  that  it  tipped  the  wrong  w^ay. 
Their  convenient  season  came  when  Paul  and  his  guards- 
man entered  the  palace:  it  went  away  when  Paul  and 
his  guardsman  left.  Have  you  never  seen  men  waiting 
for  a  convenient  season?  There  is  such  a  great  fascina- 
tion about  it,  that  though  you  maj^  have  come  in  here  to- 
tight,  and  may  sit  or  stand  with  great  respect  to  the  truth 
of  Christ,  yet  somehow  there  is  in  your  soul  the  thought, 
"  Not  quite  yet.  It  is  not  time  for  me  to  become  a  Chris- 
tian." I  say  to  a  boy,  "Seek  Christ."  He  says,  "N'o; 
wait  until  I  get  to  be  a  young  man."  I  say  to  the  young 
Tuan,  "Seek  Christ."  He  says,  "Wait  until  I  come  to 
:nid-life."  I  meet  the  same  person  in  mid-life,  and  I  say, 
"Seek  Christ."  He  says,  "Wait  until  I  get  old."  I 
meet  the  same  person  in  old  age,  and  say  to  him,  "  Seek 
Christ."  He  says,  "  Wait  until  I  am  on  my  dying  bed." 
I  am  called  to  his  dying  couch.  His  last  moments  have 
come.  I  bend  over  the  couch  and  listen  for  his  last 
words.  I  have  partially  to  guess  what  they  are  by  the 
motion  of  his  lips,  he  is  so  feeble ;  but  rallying  himself, 
he  whispers,  until  I  can  hear  him  say,  "I — am — waiting 
— for — a  more — convenient — season  " — and  he  is  gone ! 

I  can  tell  you  when  your  convenient  season  will  come. 
I  can  tell  you  the  year — it  will  be  1874.     I  can  tell  you 


210  ORDERED  BACK  TO  THE  GUARD-ROOM. 

the  month — it  will  be  the  month  of  March.  I  can  tell 
you  what  kind  of  a  day  it  will  be — it  will  be  the  Sab- 
bath-day. I  can  tell  you  what  hour  it  will  be — it  will 
be  between  eight  and  ten  o'clock.  In  other  words,  it  is 
noiv — a  word  of  three  letters ;  but  each  one  an  anthem, 
or  a  jubilee,  or  a  coronation,  or  a  dungeon,  or  a  groan. 
Do  you  ask  me  how  I  know  this  is  your  convenient  sea* 
son?  I  know  it  because  you  are  here,  and  because  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  here,  and  because  the  elect  sons  and  daugh- 
ters of  God  in  this  church  are  praying  for  your  redemp- 
tion, and  because  the  women  of  the  church,  last  Thurs- 
day afternoon,  especially  implored  the  blessing  of  God 
upon  the  morning  and  evening  services  of  to-day.  I 
know  it  because  this  matter  was  up  on  Friday  evening 
at  the  prayer-meeting,  and  this  morning  in  the  prayer- 
meeting,  and  in  the  preceding  prayer-meeting  this  even- 
ing. We  prayed  that  God  would  come  by  his  Holy 
Spirit  and  save  your  souls,  and  so  I  know  this  is  your 
convenient  season.  I  know  it  also  from  the  fact  that 
two  great  national  funeral  bells,  one  from  the  East  and 
the  other  from  the  West,  are  tolling  through  all  the  val- 
leys, and  over  all  the  mountains  of  the  land — tolling, 
tolling,  "Put  not  your  trust  in  princes,  neither  in  the 
son  of  man  in  whom  there  is  no  help ;  their  breath  goeth 
forth,  in  that  very  day  their  thoughts  perish."  Aj^  I 
know  it  is  your  convenient  season  because  some  of  you, 
like  Felix,  tremble  as  all  your  past  life  comes  upon  you 
with  its  sin,  and  all  the  future  life  comes  upon  you  with 
its  terror.  This  night  air  is  aglare  with  torches  to  show 
you  up  or  to  show  you  down.  It  is  rustling  with  wings 
to  lift  you  into  light,  or  smite  you  into  despair,  and  there 
is  a  rushing  to  and  fro,  and  a  shouting,  and  a  wailing, 


ORDER-ED  BACK  TO  THE  GUARD-ROOM.  211 

and  a  leaping,  and  a  falling,  and  a  beating  against  the 
door  of  your  soul  as  with  a  great  thunder  of  emphasis, 
telling  you,  "  Now,  now  is  the  best  time,  as  it  may  be  the 
only  time." 

My  friends,  be  quick.  You  have  no  time  to  waste. 
Be  quick,  the  days  of  your  life  are  going.  Be  quick,  the 
hour  of  your  death  is  coming.  Be  quick,  the  time  of 
grace  has  almost  closed  with  some  of  you ;  perhaps  it 
may  be  closed  with  some  of  you  to-night.  Be  quick,  lest 
some  paralysis  seize  upon  you  as  upon  our  venerable  ex- 
President,  just  carried  out,  or  you  have  no  more  time 
than  the  illustrious  senator  who  fell  this  week  —  only 
time  to  say  as  he  did,  putting  his  hand  upon  his  heart, 
'^Oh!  oh!"  and  you  be  gone! 

May  God  Almighty  forbid  that  any  of  you,  my  breth- 
ren or  sisters,  act  the  part  of  Felix  and  Drusilla,  and  put 
away  this  great  subject.  If  you  are  going  to  be  saved 
ever,  why  not  begin  to-night?  Throw  down  your  sins 
and  take  the  Lord's  pardon.  Christ  has  been  tramping 
after  you  many  a  day. 

An  Indian  and  a  white  man  became  Christians.  The 
Indian,  almost  as  soon  as  he  heard  the  Gospel,  believed 
and  was  saved  ;  but  the  white  man  struggled  on  in  dark- 
ness for  a  long  while  before  he  found  light.  After  their 
peace  in  Christ,  the  white  man  said  to  the  Indian,  "  Why- 
was  it  that  I  was  kept  so  long  in  the  darkness,  and  you. 
immediately  found  peace  ?"  The  Indian  replied,  "I  v/ill 
tell  you.  A  prince  comes  along,  and  he  offers  you  a 
coat.  You  look  at  your  coat,  and  you  say,  '  My  coat  is 
good  enough,'  and  you  refuse  his  offer ;  but  the  prince 
comes  along  and  he  offers  me  the  coat,  and  I  look  at  mj 
old  blanket  and  I  throw  that  aw^ay,  and  take  his  offer. 


212  ORDERED  BACK  TO  THE  GUARD-ROOM. 

Yon,  sir,"  continued  the  Indian,  "are  clinging  to  your 
own  righteousness,  you  think  you  are  good  enough,  and 
you  keep  your  own  righteousness ;  but  I  have  nothing, 
nothing,  and  so  when  Jesus  offers  me  pardon  and  peace, 
I  simply  take  it."  My  hearer,  why  not  now  throw  away 
the  worn-out  blanket  of  your  sin  and  take  the  robe  of  a 
Saviour's  righteousness — a  robe  so  white,  so  fair,  so  lus- 
trous, that  no  fuller  on  earth  can  whiten  it?  Oh,  Shep- 
herd, to-night  bring  home  the  lost  sheep !  Oh,  Father, 
to-night  give  a  welcoming  kiss  to  the  wan  prodigal !  Oh, 
friend  of  Lazarus,  to-night  break  down  the  door  of  the 
sepulchre,  and  say  to  all  these  dead  souls  as  by  irresisti- 
ble fiat,  "XiVe  /  LIVEl" 


FREE  CHURCHES  ADVOCATED,  213 


FKEE  CHUECHES  ADVOCATED. 

"The  rich  and  poor  meet  together:  the  Lord  is  the  maker  of  them 
all." — Proverbs  xxii.,  2. 

NO  one  class  ia  a  community  is  independent  of  the 
other  classes.  That  is  not  a  healthful  condition  of 
society  in  which  men  stand  aloof  from  each  other.  That 
is  a  better  state  when  people,  moving  in  different  circles, 
at  some  time  come  upon  a  common  platform.  What  is 
true  in  the  world  is  true  in  the  Church:  "the  rich  and 
the  poor  ought  to  meet  together:  the  Lord  is  the  maker 
of  them  all."  I  do  not  think  that  the  Church  of  Christ 
has  kept  pace  with  the  enterprise  of  the  world.  Some 
years  ago,  it  took  a  long  time  to  make  a  nail.  The 
blacksmith  would  take  the  bar  of  iron,  thrust  it  into  the 
hot  coals,  move  the  bellows,  bring  the  iron  out  on  the 
anvil,  smite  it,  cleave  it,  round  it,  fashion  it  into  nails. 
It  was  a  long  and  tedious  process ;  but  now  the  iron  is 
put  into  a  machine,  and  in  a  moment  hundreds  of  nails 
are  showered  upon  the  floor  of  the  manufactory.  Once 
it  required  some  time  to  thresh  wheat  from  the  straw. 
The  farmer  would  take  the  sheaf  of  wheat,  tear  off  the 
straw  that  bound  it,  scatter  it  on  the  floor  of  the  barn, 
and  then  the  slow  flail  would  pound  the  wheat  out  of 
the  straw;  now  the  horses  start,  and  the  machine  rum- 
bles, and  a  sheaf  of  whe^at  is  threshed  instantly. 

In  olden  times  that  was  considered  a  wonderful  print- 
ing-press which  could  make  two  hundred  and  fifty  im- 


214  FREE  CHURCHES  ADVOCATED. 

pressions  in  an  hour;  now,  by  our  modern  steam  print- 
ing-press, thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  are  made  in 
the  same  length  of  time.  The  Post-office  was  formerly 
a  slow  affiiir.  Once  in  two  weeks  the  mail  would  go 
from  London  to  Edinburgh,  and  at  about  the  same  dis- 
tance of  time  go  from  New  York  to  Boston;  but  now, 
half  a  dozen  times  a  day,  you  must  look  out  or  you  will 
be  run  over  by  the  wagons  that  come  down  Nassau  Street 
with  whole  tons  of  United  States  mails,  seven  hundred 
millions  of  letters  and  papers  having  passed  through  the 
public  post-offices  of  this  country  in  one  year. 

So  there  has  been  an  advance  in  jurisprudence.  In 
1846  the  constitution  of  our  State  was  changed,  im- 
provements were  made  in  the  criminal  code,  in  the  civil 
code — law  that  would  do  very  well  in  1777,  not  doing  at 
all  in  1873.  Now,  I  ask  if  the  Church  of  God  has  kept 
pace  with  worldly  enterprise?  with  the  post-office?  with 
modern  railroad  transportation?  with  the  arts?  with  the 
sciences?  with  optics?  with  geology?  with  astronomy? 
"Oh,"  you  say,  "there  is  no  new  principle  in  religion 
to  be  developed."  Well,  I  respond,  there  is  no  new 
principle  in  science  to  be  developed.  They  are  only  the 
old  principles  that  have  come  to  light  and  demonstration. 
There  was  just  as  much  electricity  in  the  clouds  before 
Benjamin  Franklin  played  kite  with  the  thunder-storms 
as  there  has  been  since.  The  law  of  gravitation  did  not 
wait  for  Newton  to  come.  There  was  just  as  much  pow- 
er in  steam  before  Fulton  discovered  it  as  since.  The 
carboniferous  and  Jurassic  strata  of  the  earth  did  not 
wait  to  take  their  position  until  Hugh  Miller  planted 
his  crow-bar.  So,  in  matters  of  religion,  if  a  man  comes, 
and  says,  "  I  have  now  discovered  an  entirely  new  priu- 


FREE  CHURCHES  ADVOCATED.  215 

ciple  in  religion  ;"  I  say,  "I  have  no  faith  in  what  you 
are  going  to  say.  I  have  but  one  standard,  and  that  is  the 
Bible."  But  if  he  says,  "I  have  an  old  Bible  principle 
that  I  wish  to  evolve  and  demonstrate,"  then,  with  all 
the  possible  attention  of  my  soul,  I  say,  "Hear!  hear!" 
I  propose  to-night  to  argue  on  behalf  of  a  Free  Church. 
There  are  a  great  many  who  do  not  quite  understand  the 
pUms  and  policies  of  such  a  church.  In  the  first  place, 
I  believe  in  such  a  church  because  it  seems  to  me  to  be 
the  Scriptural  idea.  The  apostle  James  says:  "If  there 
come  into  your  assembly  a  man  with  a  gold  ring,  in 
goodly  apparel,  and  there  come  in  also  a  poor  man  in 
vile  raiment;  and  ye  have  respect  to  him  that  weareth 
the  gay  clothing,  and  say  unto  him,  Sit  thou  here  in  a 
good  place;  and  say  to  the  poor.  Stand  thou  there,  or 
sit  here  under  my  footstool :  are  ye  not  then  partial 
in  yourselves,  and  are  become  judges  of  evil  thoughts?" 
In  other  words,  the  apostle  James  draws  a  picture.  It  is 
a  meeting  of  Christian  people;  the  usher  stands  at  the 
door;  two  people  come  to  the  door  and  ask  for  seats. 
The  usher  looks  at  the  one  man,  examines  him  from 
head  to  foot,  sees  that  his  garments  are  dictated  by  the 
recent  fashion,  and  says,  "  Come  here,  sir,  I'll  give  you 
an  excellent  seat;"  takes  him  far  up  in  front,  gives  him  a 
seat,  and  says,  "I  hope  you  will  be  very  comfortable." 
Then  the  usher  goes  back,  sees  the  other  man,  scrutinizes 
him  very  thoroughly,  and  says,  "Poor  coat,  worn  shoes, 
old  hat.  I  think  you  will  find  a  very  good  place  to 
stand  in  that  corner."  Now,  the  lightnings  of  that  pas- 
sage strike  such  an  usher ;  in  other  words,  you  have  no 
right  to  arrange  a  man's  position  in  the  house  of  God 
according  to  his  financial  qualifications.    Do  you  suppose 


216  FMEE  CHURCHES  ADVOCATED. 

that  tlie  seats  in  the  tabernacle  of  olden  time,  the  temple, 
and  the  synagogue,  were  ever  rented  by  worshipers?  Oh 
no;  you  tell  me  those  were  miraculous  times.  You  say 
in  our  times  churches  are  such  expensive  institutions. 
We  want  all  this  costly  machinery.  Let  me  tell  you  no 
church  of  the  day  costs  half  so  much  as  did  the  old  tem- 
ple, and  yet  that  temple  in  olden  times  was  supported  by 
voluntary  contributions.  When  the  farmer  brought  his 
harvest  in,  he  said,  "  These  sheaves  are  for  the  Lord." 
When  the  flocks  were  drawn  up,  he  said,  ''These  lambs 
are  for  God."  When  the  birds  were  caught,  he  said, 
"  These  pigeons,  and  these  doves,  are  for  sacrifice."  The 
temple,  the  tabernacle,  all  supported  by  voluntary  contri- 
butions. But  you  say  men  were  more  generous  in  those 
times.  No,  no;  the  world  has  been  advancing  all  the 
time ;  there  has  never  been  so  much  generosity  on  earth 
as  now. 

Do  you  suppose  it  would  have  been  possible  for  the 
Christian  and  Sanitary  commissions  that  we  had  during 
the  last  war  to  have  prospered  in  those  ancient  times? 
No,  they  could  not  have  been  supported  two  thousand, 
one  thousand,  or  five  hundred  years  ago.  They  are  pro- 
jected in  this  Christian  age.  Now,  I  say,  if  in  those  dark 
times,  and  in  that  wicked  city  of  Jerusalem,  the  temple 
could  be  supported  by  voluntary  contributions,  can  we 
not  in  this  Christian  age,  and  in  the  full  blaze  of  the  Gos- 
pel light,  and  when  the  doctrine  of  Christian  beneficence 
is  so  much  inculcated,  support  a  plain  church  ?  The  fact 
is,  that  the  modes  of  constructing  church  finances  have 
chilled  the  voluntary  principle,  and  dammed  back  the 
charities  of  the  world ;  when,  if  we  had  gone  back  to  the 
old  Bible  plan  in  all  our  churches,  there  would  have  been 


FEEE  CHUHCHES  ADVOCATED.  217 

larger  benevolence  and  a  more  extensive  support  of  the 
institutions  of  religion.  So  that  I  come  back  now  with 
more  emphasis  than  ever,  to  say,  "If  there  come  into 
your  assembly  a  man  with  a  gold  ring  and  goodly  ap- 
parel, and  there  come  in  also  a  poor  man  with  vile  rai- 
ment, and  ye  have  respect  to  him  that  weareth  the  gay 
clothing,  and  say  unto  him.  Sit  thou  here  in  a  good 
place,  and  say  to  the  poor.  Stand  thou  there,  or  sit  here 
under  my  footstool,  are  ye  not  then  partial  in  your- 
selves, and  are  become  judges  of  evil  thoughts?"  Oh, 
how  different  it  would  be  in  all  our  churches  if,  instead 
of  having  them  supported  by  a  few  men,  we  could  have 
the  great  masses  of  the  people  bring  their  mites  into  the 
Lord's  treasury. 

I  argue,  farther,  in  behalf  of  a  Free  Church,  because  I 
think  it  is  the  only  practical  common -sense  mode  for 
city  evangelization.  The  Church  has  tried  scores  of 
ways.  We  have  gone  out  with  tracts,  and  with  our  Bi- 
bles and  religious  books,  among  the  people  in  the  desti- 
tute parts  of  the  city.  Some  have  refused  to  take  them. 
Some  have  burned  them  up.  Some  have  read  them  and 
tried  to  reform ;  but  as  long  as  we  leave  them  down 
amidst  the  evil  influences  by  which  they  are  surrounded, 
and  do  not  bring  them  into  some  Christian  church — if 
you  reform  them  fifty  times,  fifty  times  they  will  be  un- 
reformed.  In  other  words,  here  is  a  man  down  by  the 
marshes  with  chills  and  fever.  The  physician  comes 
and  gives  him  quinine,  and  stops  the  chills;  but  just  as 
long  as  that  man  continues  to  live  down  by  the  swamps, 
he  will  be  subjected  to  the  same  ailment.  Bring  him 
out  on  the  hill-top,  where  the  atmosphere  is  clear,  if  you 
want  him  to  be  permanently  restored.     Now,  I  say  of 


218  FREE  CHURCHES  ADVOCATED. 

those  people  wlio  live  in  the  slums  of  city  destitution,  as 
long  as  you  leave  them  there  they  will  fall  into  their  old 
sins  ;  but  if  you  bring  them  into  the  healthy  atmosphere 
of  a  Christian  church,  then  you  may  hope  for  their  per- 
manent reformation.  If  you  can  say  to  them,  "  There 
is  a  free  church,  there  is  a  free  Bible,  there  is  a  free  cross, 
and  yonder  is  a  free  heaven,"  they  will  accept  the  invi- 
tation and  come  with  you. 

Mark  this,  my  friends,  that  when  you  save  the  cities, 
you  save  the  world.  When  Pekin  comes  to  Christ,  all 
China  will  come.  When  Paris  surrenders  to  God,  all 
France  will  surrender.  When  London  prays,  England 
will  pray  with  her.  When  New  York  bows  at  the  feet 
of  Christ,  the  United  States  will  bow  with  her.  Save 
the  cities,  and  you  save  the  world. 

I  knew  this  city  of  Brooklyn  eighteen  years  ago. 
Since  then  there  have  been  great  efforts  made  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  city,  and  yet  you  know  as  well  as 
I  that  there  is  more  sin  in  the  city  to-day,  more  Sab- 
bath-breaking, and  a  vaster  population  who  come  not 
under  any  kind  of  religious  influence.  Where  is  Brook- 
lyn to-day?  In  the  churches?  No!  Where  is  New 
York  to-day  ?  In  the  churches  ?  No !  No !  No !  It 
is  the  exception  when  people  go  to  church.  A  vast  ma- 
jority of  the  masses  are  traveling  on  down  toward  death, 
unassisted  because  uninvited.  Now,  if  a  surgeon  goes 
into  a  hospital,  and  there  are  three  hundred  patients, 
and  he  cures  twenty  of  them  and  the  other  two  hundred 
and  eighty  die,  I  call  that  unsuccessful  treatment.  If  the 
Church  of  God  has  saved  some,  when  I  compare  the  few 
that  have  been  redeemed  with  the  vast  multitude  that 
have  perished,  I  say  it  has  been  a  comparative  failure ; 


FREE  CHUMCHES  ADVOCATED.  219 

and  if  the  old  plan  of  conducting  the  Churcli  of  Christ 
has  failed,  let  us  start  the  ship  on  another  tack  and  try 
another  plan.  In  other  words,  come  back  to  the  Gospel 
theory,  and  throw  wide  open  the  doors  of  our  church  and 
tell  the  people  to  come  in,  w^ithout  regard  to  their  past 
history  or  their  present  financial  or  moral  condition. 

Again,  I  argue  in  behalf  of  a  Free  Church,  because 
there  are  three  or  four  classes  of2:)eople  that  loill  especially  he 
touched  hy  it.  Among  them  will  be  men  who  were  once 
very  influential  in  the  churches,  but  who  lost  their  prop- 
erty, and  consequently  can  not  meet  the  pew-rents.  I 
am  not  speaking  of  imaginary  cases.  I  have  seen  scores 
of  that  kind  of  cases  in  the  city  of  Brooklyn.  In  1837, 
or  in  1857,  or  1867,  they  lost  their  property.  They 
used  to  sit  near  the  pulpit.  The  next  year  they  went 
farther  back  in  the  church.  The  next  year  farther  back, 
and  farther  back  as  their  finances  entirely  failed  them, 
until  at  last  they  sat  back  by  the  door ;  and  when  the 
treasurer  went  down  the  aisle,  he  tapped  the  man's  shoul- 
der and  said,  "  If  you  don't  pay  up,  you  will  have  to  va- 
cate this  seat."  What  became  of  that  man  ?  He  went 
out  from  the  house  of  God.  What  becomes  of  the  great 
multitude  who  once  were  influential  in  the  Church  of 
God,  who,  having  lost  their  property,  can  not  meet  the 
pew-rents  in  the  churches  ?  They  have  gone — some  to 
infidelity  —  some  into  lives  of  dissipation  —  God  only 
knows  where  they  have  gone!  Will  men  of  any  self- 
respect  go  to  church  under  such  a  state  of  circumstances  ? 
I  tell  you,  nay.  If  it  were  my  case,  I  would  stay  at 
home  and  gather  my  children  about  me,  and  read  to 
them  of  Christ  and  a  free  heaven,  out  of  which  a  man  is 
never  pitched  because  he  can  not  pay  his  pew-rent !     At 


220  FUEE  CHURCHES  ADVOCATED. 

the  very  time  a  man  most  needs  the  consolation  of  re- 
ligion— when  his  earthly  fortunes  have  failed  —  at  the 
very  time  that  he  needs  most  to  be  told  about  treasures 
that  never  fail,  in  banks  that  never  break — the  Church 
of  God  turns  its  back  upon  that  man,  and  the  work  of 
breaking  down  that  the  Wall  Street  gamblers  began,  the 
Church  of  God  finishes.  It  seems  as  if  Christ,  in  the  in- 
finity of  his  foreknowledge,  could  not  think  of  a  Church 
pretending  to  love  him  that  would  unanimously  bar  out 
the  destitute.  He  said,  "  The  poor  ye  have  always  with 
you."  He  made  it  not  merely  as  a  statement,  but  as  a 
prophecy  and  a  promise ;  and  yet  it  does  really  seem  as 
if,  in  this  respect,  the  Lord  God  had  been  thwarted. 

There  is  another  class  of  persons  to  whom  a  Free 
Church  will  appeal,  and  that  is  the  middle  classes.  And 
let  me  say  they  are  the  suftering  ones  in  religious  things. 
The  wealthy  may  purchase  religious  advantages  any- 
where ;  the  positively  beggared  may  feel  so  humiliated, 
they  will  be  willing  to  go  into  a  mission  chapel :  but  the 
middle  classes  have  not  money  enough  to  buy  positions 
in  the  wealthy  churches,  and  they  are  too  proud  to  go 
gamon  the  beggared.  So  they  stay  at  home.  When  I 
say  the  middle  classes,  I  mean  those  whose  income  just 
about  meets  their  outgo;  and  you  will  immediately  see 
that  is  the  condition  of  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine 
out  of  every  thousand  in  this  city  and  in  every  city. 
The  fact  is,  God  does  not  trust  us  with  money — I  mean 
the  majority  of  us.  Your  son  is  at  school.  You  do  not 
give  him  a  large  amount  of  money  at  the  start.  You 
say  to  the  teacher,  ''Send  in  the  bills."  When  the  bills 
come  in,  you  pay  for  the  tuition,  you  pay  for  clothing, 
you  pay  for  traveling  expenses.     ISTow  God  treats  us 


FREE  CHURCHES  ADVOCATED.  221 

very  mucli  in  that  way.  He  clothes  us,  pays  our  travel- 
ing expenses,  shelters  us,  but  never  trusts  us  with  a  large 
amount  of  money.  Hence  the  middle  classes  are  in  the 
majority — those  men  in  a  community  are  in  the  major- 
ity who,  when  they  have  met  the  butcher's  bill,  and  the 
grocer's  bill,  and  the  gas  bill,  and  the  clothing  bill,  and 
paid  their  house-rent,  have  nothing  left.  The  wife  says 
to  her  husband,  "My  dear,  I  think  we  ought  to  go  to 
church  somewhere.  Why  don't  we  take  a  pew  in  Dr. 
Well-to-do's  church  ?"  "  Oh,"  he  says,  "  we  can't  aiford 
it.  I  have  more  now  to  pay  than  I  can  pay.  We  can't 
go  there.  We've  got  to  deny  ourselves  a  little  longer. 
We'll  get  a  little  religion  perhaps  at  home.  We'll  oc- 
casionally read  the  Bible,  and  once  in  a  while  go  to  a 
funeral,  and  that  won't  cost  us  any  thing;  and  we  will 
pick  up  a  little  religion  here  and  there ;  and  after  a  while 
we  may  have  good  luck,  and  we  will  then  rent  a  pew, 
and  go  to  heaven  respectably."  Many  a  husband  and 
wife  have  consulted  with  each  other  upon  matters  of 
church  economy,  and  before  taking  a  pew,  the  husband 
said  to  the  wife,  "  Now,  you  know  that  our  income  only 
meets  our  outgo.  AVhat  are  you  willing  to  deny  your- 
self? Will  you  have  this  old  carpet  another  year  ?  Will 
you  v/ear  that  set  of  furs  another  winter  ?  Will  you  con- 
sent to  have  no  more  dresses  this  season?  "ISTo,"  she 
says.  "Then,"  he  says,  "we  can't  afford  religion,  and 
we  can't  afford  the  church."  And  so  they  stay  at  home. 
My  friends,  open  the  doors  of  a  free  church,  where  men 
may  meet  together  without  invidious  comparisons,  and 
they  will  pour  in  like  the  tides  of  the  sea.  We  have 
been  barring  out  this  class  of  men  from  the  house  of 
God,  and  barring  them  out  from  the  very  gate  of  heaven. 


222  FREE  CHURCHES  ADVOCATED. 

The  fact  is,  tliat  the  Church  has  become  a  sort  of  spir- 
itual insurance  company ;  and  the  mail  comes  to  get  a 
policy,  and  you  take  him  into  a  private  room  and  sound 
the  lungs,  and  listen  to  the  beating  of  the  heart,  and  then 
practically — not  literally,  but  practically — you  ask  him 
if  he  is  sound  on  the  dollar  question,  and  if  he  has  been 
afflicted  with  any  thing  like  bankruptcy,  and  if  there  has 
been  any  thing  like  financial  sickness  in  the  family ;  and 
if  it  is  all  right,  you  charge  him  a  great  premium,  and 
tell  him  to  be  very  careful  and  pay  it  promptly,  for  if 
the  policy  should  run  out,  that  very  night  he  might  die, 
and  so  lose  all  the  advantages  of  all  the  pew-rent  he 
had  ever  paid;  and  where  his  soul  would  go  to  would 
be  very  uncertain. 

There  is  another  class  of  people  to  whom  a  Free  Church 
will  appeal,  and  that  is  the  rich.  I  am  yet  to  find  an 
intelligent  and  rich  Christian  man  who  does  not  believe 
in  such  an  institution.  He  may  doubt  the  financial  suc- 
cess of  it ;  but  I  am  yet  to  find  one  such  who  does  not 
believe  in  the  principle  of  it.  In  other  words,  our  mon- 
eyed men  do  not  like  to  see  the  principles  of  Wall  Street 
applied  to  the  Church  of  God.  When  I  say  a  rich  man, 
I  mean  a  man  who  has  riches — not  a  man  who  has  gained 
a  little  money  and  who  is  very  anxious  lest  he  can  not 
sufficiently  display  it — but  I  mean  a  man  who  has  a  for- 
tune, who  masters  it,  and  who  has  not  allowed  his  for- 
tune to  master  him.  When  you  shall  throw  open  the 
churches  of  the  living  God  as  free  churches,  then  I  want 
to  tell  you  that  the  gold,  and  the  silver,  and  the  myrrh, 
and  the  frankincense  will  come  down  to  the  feet  of  Jesus. 
I  am  not  merely  theorizing.  We  demonstrated  it  in  the 
old  Tabernacle.     There  were  the  poor  there.     Then  we 


FMEE  CHURCHES  ADVOCATED.  223 

had  the  middle  classes — men  who  toiled ;  some  with  hand, 
and  some  with  brain — for  brain-work  is  poorly  paid  in 
this  country.  We  had  many  of  that  class,  and  they  had 
a  hard  struggle.  Then  we  had  more  rich  men  than  we 
ever  had  in  the  old  city  church — more  than  we  ever  ex- 
pected— men  who  said,  "I  will  pay  for  the  Gospel  not 
only  for  myself  and  my  family,  but  there  is  a  man  in  that 
pew  who  can  not  afford  to  pay  any  thing;  I  will  pay 
for  him.  There  is  another  man  ;  I  will  pay  for  him. 
And  instead  of  sending  my  money  to  foreign  lands,  where 
I  have  no  doubt  it  does  good,  I  will  preach  the  Gos- 
pel to  all  those  in  the  same  church  who  can  not  afford 
to  purchase  religious  advantages."  So  it  was  practically 
demonstrated ;  and  we  shall,  God  willing,  on  a  larger 
scale  demonstrate  it  in  the  new  Tabernacle.  And  if  you 
shall  be  afraid  to  come  to  such  a  place  lest  you  be  social- 
ly contaminated,  I  hope  yo\x  will  stay  away,  lest  you  con- 
taminate us ! 

I  am  in  favor  of  a  Free  Church,  further,  because  all 
the  Providential  indications^  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  are 
in  that  direction.  It  has  been  the  all-absorbing  principle 
in  my  soul  ever  since  I  entered  the  ministry.  It  was  the 
thing  that  brought  me  to  this  city.  I  had  a  comfortable 
home  in  Philadelphia,  but  this  was  a  Gospel  principle 
I  thought  I  would  like  to  see  tried.  I  came  here,  and 
it  so  happened  that  all  the  people  who  gathered  around 
me  were  of  the  same  opinion,  and  so  we  have  been 
unanimous.  "We  were  unanimous  in  the  style  of  the 
new  church,  and  about  the  architecture  of  the  second. 
We  were  unanimous  about  having  it  free.  When  we 
were  burned  down  we  were  unanimous  about  reconstruc- 
tion, and  the  principle  we  developed  in  the  old  church 

10 


224  FBEE  CHURCHES  ADVOCATED. 

we  will  try  to  develop  in  the  new.  Where  the  old  Tab- 
ernacle stopped  when  it  burned  down,  the  new  Taberna- 
cle will  begin  when  it  rises  up. 

Again,  I  am  in  favor  of  the  Free  Church,  because  it  ap- 
peals to  men  of  the  world^  as  no  other  kind  of  church  does. 
A  prominent  minister  of  New  York  said  to  me  a  week 
or  two  ago,  "  There  are  no  people  who  come  into  our 
churches  here  in  New  York  but  Christian  people.  Some- 
how, we  do  not  get  hold  of  the  world."  I  said,  "  The 
majority  of  those  who  come  into  my  religious  services 
are  of  the  world,  and  I  think  it  must  be  that  the  free 
Christian  principle  is  attracting  them.  In  other  words, 
men  of  the  world  can  not  understand  the  limitations  and 
the  exclusiveness  of  the  house  of  God.  They  say,  'If 
you  are  brothers  and  sisters,  why  do  not  the  rich  and 
poor  meet  together?  the  Lord  is  the  Maker  of  them  all.'  " 
"  Oh,"  you  say,  "  those  men  of  the  world  do  not  do  their 
duty."  I  know  they  do  not  do  their  duty ;  but  if  this 
world  is  to  be  brought  to  Christ — if  Bibles  are  to  be 
printed,  if  churches  are  to  be  built,  if  Christian  institu- 
tions are  to  be  supported — I  ask  you  are  not  the  dollars 
of  the  man  of  the  world  worth  as  much  as  the  dollars  of 
the  man  of  the  church  ?  Besides  that,  we  expect  these 
men  of  the  world  en  masse  to  march  after  a  while  into 
the  kingdom  of  Christ.  Having  seen  the  frank,  sympa- 
thetic men  of  the  world  around  me  as  my  companions, 
I  expect  they  will  be  my  companions  when  they  and  I 
have  crossed  the  flood  into  the  great  eternity.  I  have 
lived  with  them  in  this  city,  and  I  expect  they  will  be 
my  neighbors  in  the  better  city.  I  know  all  their  trials 
and  temptations;  I  know  all  their  business  perplexities; 
I  know  all  their  hardships ;  and  I  want  to  stand  before 


FREE  CHURCHES  ADVOCATED.  225 

them  a  few  years,  and  tell  them  of  that  Christ  who  will 
be  their  security  in  every  financial  strait  and  their  bonds- 
man in  every  crisis,  and  who,  when  the  nations  are  in  a 
panic  and  the  world  ablaze,  will  declare  everlasting  divi- 
dends of  light,  and  joy,  and  triumph  to  all  those  who 
have  invested  their  affections  in  him. 

Men  and  brethren,  brothers  and  sisters  in  Christ,  are 
you  ready  for  such  a  work?  That  which  three  years 
ago  I  talked  to  you  as  a  mere  theory  has  become  a  mat- 
ter of  practical  demonstration.  The  night  before  the  old 
Tabernacle  was  burned  down,  the  trustees  of  my  church 
met  together,  reviewed  the  finances,  looked  at  the  in- 
come, looked  at  the  outgo,  and  decided  that  the  income 
exceeded  the  outgo,  proving  a  free  church  practicable. 
That  being  demonstrated,  it  was  enough  for  that  church. 
We  will  take  that  principle,  and  develop  it  on  a  larger 
scale.  God  will  this  j^ear  let  you  strike  a  blow  that  will 
ring  through  eternal  ages.  The  grandeur  of  the  work  to 
which  you  have  put  your  hand  no  language  can  describe, 
no  imagination  can  conceive,  no  plummet  sound,  no  lad- 
der scale.  If  you  shall,  in  the  strength  of  God,  as  I  think 
you  will,  rise  up  to  this  work  of  giving  a  free  Gospel  to 
the  masses  of  Brooklyn  and  the  masses  of  this  country, 
it  will  take  eternal  ages  for  you  to  count  up  the  rewards 
of  your  faithfulness.  If  some  may  scoff  at  you,  let  them 
scoff;  remembering  that  they  scoffed  at  Nehemiah,  and  at 
Daniel,  and  at  Christ,  and  pronounced  them  fools.  Ee- 
member,  besides,  that  there  are  tens  of  thousands  of  good 
people  in  this  land,  and  in  Britain,  who  are  prajang  for 
our  success  as  a  Church.  Above  all,  remember  that  we 
are  under  the  benediction  of  Him  in  whose  word  we  trust 
and  in  whose  strength  we  go  forward.     The  mountains 


226  FREE  CHURCHES  ADVOCATED. 

may  depart,  the  seas  may  burn,  the  stars  may  scatter,  the 
heavens  may  double  up  like  parchment,  the  sun  may 
burn  down  in  the  socket,  and  all  the  worlds  fly  in  the 
Judgment-day  like  thistle-down  in  a  tempest ;  but  God 
will  back  out  of  his  promises,  and  betray  his  discipleship, 
and  break  his  oath — never  I  never  ! 


OBJECTIONS  TO  FREE  CHURCHES  ANSWERED.       227 


OBJECTIONS  TO  FREE  CHURCHES  AN- 
SWERED. 

"The  rich  and  poor  meet  together:  the  Lord  is  the  maker  of  them 
all." — Proverbs  xxii.,  2. 

LAST  Sabbath  I  discoursed  to  you  from  these  words, 
arguing  in  behalf  of  a  free  Christian  church.  I 
showed  you,  as  well  as  I  could,  that  it  was  a  Scriptural 
idea ;  that  it  was  the  only  practicable  mode  of  city  evan- 
gelization ;  that  it  appealed  to  a  class  of  persons  who 
would  not  otherwise  be  met;  that,  so  far  as  we  ourselves 
were  concerned,  all  the  Providential  indications  were  in 
that  direction ;  and  then,  lastly,  that  such  an  organization 
would  enlist  the  sympathies  of  men  of  the  world,  as  no 
other  organization  could.  I  resume  the  subject  where  I 
then  left  it. 

What  do  you  suppose  Christ  thinks  of  the  present 
mode  of  conducting  church  finances?  If  Jesus  were  now 
to  alight  upon  earth  and  build  a  church  and  assume  its 
pastorate,  would  it  be  necessary  for  men  to  pay  money 
in  order  to  have  seats  in  that  church?  From  what  you 
know  of  Christ's  treatment  of  the  widow  with  two  mites, 
and  of  Mary  Magdalen,  and  of  the  poor  man  by  the  way- 
side, do  you  think  that  a  man's  position  in  that  particu- 
lar church  of  Christ  would  be  regulated  according  to  the 
number  of  dollars  that  he  could  pay  ?  No,  says  every 
man,  that  idea  would  be  abhorrent  to  Christ.  Well,  then, 
I  say  it  ought  to  be  abhorrent  to  us.     Do  you  wonder 


228        OBJECTIONS  TO  FREE  CHURCHES  ANSWERED. 

that  there  have  been  so  many  troubles  in  the  churches — 
that  many  of  them  have  fought  like  beasts  at  Ephesus, 
fought  about  the  site  upon  which  to  build,  fought  about 
the  architecture,  fought  about  the  choir,  fought  about  the 
minister,  fought  before  church,  fought  after  church,  fought 
all  the  week  ?  Some  of  you  know  that  the  greatest  con- 
flicts of  the  last  fifty  years  have  been  church  troubles. 
If  our  churches  were  all  regulated  by  the  principles  of 
Christ's  religion,  do  you  not  believe  that  there  would  be 
a  cessation  to  such  combat?  "  But,"  says  some  one,  "  we 
must  stick  to  the  old  plan,  lest  we  shall  not  get  on  success- 
fully in  our  finances,"  as  though  the  present  mode  in  the 
churches  of  conducting  church  finances  were  a  success. 
Far  from  it.  Three-fourths  of  the  churches  of  Christ  in 
this  land  are  in  debt,  and  in  three  -  fourths  of  them  the 
income  does  not  equal  the  outgo,  and,  at  the  end  of  the 
year,  a  few  generous  men  have  to  come  together  and 
make  up  the  deficit,  or  some  general  effort  is  made  on 
the  part  of  the  congregation  to  regulate  the  indebtedness. 
Ay,  the  regulation  of  church  finances  by  the  past  mode 
is  a  positive  failure.  Every  body  knows  that  churches 
are  the  poorest  pay,  and  that  if  a  bank  or  an  insurance 
company  were  conducted  in  the  same  slip-shod  manner, 
so  thoroughly  inefficient  —  that  it  would  be  discredited 
and  wiped  out  of  existence.  If  the  old  mode  of  conduct- 
ing church  finances  in  the  religious  organizations  had 
been  thoroughly  successful,  then  we  might  be  on  our 
guard;  but  as  the  fact  is,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  it  has 
been  a  failure ;  I  say  there  is  no  danger  in  floating  off 
from  it. 

But  this  brings  me  to  answer  the  first  objection  which 
can  be  made  to  a  free  church,  and  that  is,  that  it  can  not 


OEJECTIOXS  TO  FMEE  CHURCHES  ANSWERED.       229 

he  financially  snjiported.  You  say  that  there  is  a  great 
deal  of  expensive  machinery  in  a  church ;  there  is  the 
coal  bill,  and  the  gas  bill,  and  the  insurance  bill,  and  the 
expenses  of  sexton,  and  music,  and  minister,  and,  as  free 
churches  ought  to  be  conducted  on  a  large  and  generous 
scale,  there  will  be  extraordinary  expenses.  Ay,  we  ad- 
mit all  this.  In  a  free  church  the  music  should  be  of  the 
very  best  possible  character,  every  hymn  storming  the 
very  gates  of  heaven.  The  church  architecture  ought  to 
be  plain  but  imposing,  the  people  seated  face  to  face  in 
the  great  congregation.  The  preaching  ought  to  be  ear- 
nest. Indeed,  it  is  a  great  deal  easier  to  preach  in  such  a 
church  than  in  any  other.  If  a  man  has  been  for  a  long 
time  at  a  banquet,  and  five  or  six  courses  of  food  have 
passed  before  him,  then  when  plain  bread  is  presented  he 
rejects  it;  but  if  you  take  that  plain  bread  to  men  who 
for  forty-eight  hours  have  had  nothing  to  eat,  how  they 
will  clutch  for  it!  Now  I  simply  say  that  a  vast  majori- 
t}^  of  the  people  wdio  have  been  attending  our  Christian 
churches  have  been  stuffed  for  these  twenty  years  with 
the  confections  of  religion,  and  when  we  present  them 
the  plain  bread  of  the  Gospel,  they  do  not  w^ant  it ;  but 
if  we  should  gather  into  our  churches  the  outside  masses 
who  are  starving  for  this  bread  of  life,  w^ith  what  ear- 
nestness and  with  what  avidity  they  would  seize  upon  it. 
•'But,"  3^ou  say,  "  the  support  of  a  church  witli  such  mu- 
sic, and  with  such  architecture,  and  earnest  preaching, 
would  be  very  expensive,  and  how  will  you  meet  the  in- 
debtedness?" I  answer:  by  annual  subscription  and  by 
Sabbath  collections.  "But,"  3^ou  say,  "there  will  be 
mean  men  who  will  come  and  occupy  the  pews  and  pay 
nothing,  and  so  the  financial  interests  of  the  church  will 


230        OBJECTIONS  TO  FREE  CHURCHES  ANSWERED. 

go  overboard."  I  acknowledge  tliat  there  are  mean  men 
in  churches.  There  are  men  with  souls  so  small  that 
fifty  of  them  might  dance  on  the  point  of  a  needle  and 
have  room  to  turn  around  without  touching  their  elbows! 
I  had  in  mj  church  at  Syracuse,  New  York,  a  man  of 
comfortable  means  who  gave  nothing  for  the  support  of 
the  Gospel;  but  Friday  night  after  Friday  night  I  heard 
him  pray  that  the  pastor  might  be  blessed  in  his  basket 
and  store,  while  all  the  time  I  was  thinking,  if  I  were  de- 
pendent upon  you,  I  would  have  a  small  basket  and  a 
veiy"  poor  store!  The  man  is  gone  to  a  better  countrj^ 
and  where,  I  hope,  he  can  live  more  economically.  But 
while  there  are  mean  men  in  the  Church,!  want  you  to 
understand  that  the  majority  of  people  who  come  to  the 
bouse  of  God  are  not  of  that  class.  In  our  tabernacle, 
which  was  conducted  on  the  free  principle,  there  were 
only  three  or  four  such  persons. 

My  observation  is,  that  if  you  take  a  common-sense 
principle  and  lay  it  before  common-sense  men,  and  say 
that  is  for  the  improvement  of  society  and  the  bettering  of 
the  condition  of  the  w^oi'ld,  men  will  generously  support 
it;  and  as  nine-tenths  of  the  people  in  a  community  can 
"understand  the  free  church  principle  when  it  is  plainly 
set  before  them,  I  believe  that  plan  may  anj^where  and 
everywhere  be  developed.  I  have  as  much  doubt  of  the 
existence  of  God  and  of  a  future  world,  and  of  the  bless- 
edness of  the  Gospel,  as  I  have  of  the  willingness  of  the 
people  to  support  a  free  church  in  any  town  or  city  in 
all  this  country  ;  in  other  words,  I  have  no  doubt  at  all. 
Sa3'S  some  one,  "  Is  it  right  to  put  ministers  of  the  Gospel 
in  a  way  where  they  shall  have  an  uncertainty  of  liveli- 
hood?"    I  reply  by  saying  that  if  a  man  have  a  million 


OBJECTIONS  TO  FREE  CHURCHES  ANSWERED.        231 

dollars,  and  he  give  you  a  check  for  twenty-five  dollars, 
when  you  go  to  the  bank  and  present  that  check  you 
know  there  is  such  a  large  margin  between  the  man's 
capacity  and  that  small  check,  that  you  have  no  doubt 
that  it  will  be  promptly  cashed.  ISTow  Christ  says  to  his 
ministers,  "  Go  and  preach  my  Gospel ;  I  am  able  to  take 
care  of  you.  I  will  take  care  of  you.  Lo,  I  am  with 
you  alway — even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.  The  cat- 
tle on  a  thousand  hills  are  mine,  all  the  treasures  of  the 
universe  are  at  my  feet.  Go,  work  in  my  vineyard,  and 
you  shall  want  no  good  thing."  Alas,  then,  if  we  who 
are  in  the  ministry  fold  our  hands  and  begin  to  tremble 
and  say,  "Dear  Lord,  that  is  a  beautiful  principle,  but 
where  is  my  salary  to  come  from?"  Besides  that,  I  want 
you  to  remember  that  the  young  men  who  will  be  will- 
ing to  connect  themselves  with  the  free  churches  of  this 
country — though  they  may  not  have  large  means  now 
wnth  which  to  help  you — still  they  are,  after  a  while,  to 
shoulder  the  great  church  enterprises.  Who  are  your 
poor  men  to-day?  Largely,  they  who  twenty  years  ago 
w^ere  in  affluence.  Who  are  your  rich  men  to-day? 
Those  who  twenty  years  ago  were  in  poverty,  struggling 
up  from  the  very  foot  of  the  ladder.  I  say  these  young 
men  who  are  clerks  in  our  stores  on  five  hundred  dollars 
a  year,  or  a  thousand  dollars,  or  fifteen  hundred,  will  after 
a  while,  under  God,  be  the  mighty  men  on  'Change ;  and 
though  now,  w^hen  they  connect  themselves  with  your 
church,  they  may  be  of  little  or  of  no  financial  help,  after 
they  have  made  their  fortunes,  as  they  will,  every  dollnr 
of  those  fortunes  will  be  consecrated  to  Christ.  So  that 
we  may  look  in  that  direction  and  feel  that  there  will  be 
help. 

10^ 


232        OBJECTIONS  TO  FREE  CHURCHES  ANSWERED, 

My  friends,  unless  the  great  masses  of  the  people  can 
be  brought  into  our  churches,  what  is  to  become  of  our 
cities?  Do  you  know  the  fact  that  crime,  and  debauch- 
ery, and  every  sort  of  abomination  are  triumphing  in  our 
great  towns  ?  Just  take  out  your  pencils  and  make  a  cal- 
culation ;  it  is  only  a  question  in  common  arithmetic — 
How  long,  if  evil  influences  continue  to  increase  at  the 
same  ratio,  how  long  before  the  religion  of  Christ  in  our 
cities  will  be  discomfited  and  our  churches  destroyed? 
In  less  than  a  century,  as  certain  as  two  and  two  make 
four,  unless  some  other  plan  is  tried.  Yet  we  know  that 
religion  is  to  triumph,  and  that  sin  is  to  go  down,  and 
that  Christ  is  to  reign  in  all  our  cities;  but  it  will  be  by 
some  other  plan ;  it  will  be  when  the  churches  of  Christ 
are  thrown  wide  open,  and  the  people  told  to  come  in, 
"without  any  regard  to  their  financial  qualifications,  and 
hear  the  Gospel  and  get  prepared  for  heaven.  The  pos- 
sibility of  establishing  and  sustaining  such  a  church  is 
strengthened  by  the  idea  that  men  will  support  home 
institutions  rather  than  foreign.  How  many  of  you  were 
ever  kept  awake  at  night  because  the  Gospel  does  not 
prosper  in  Greenland?  How  many  ever  refused  food 
because  there  is  heathenism  in  Guatemala?  None!  But 
when  you  can  bring  before  men  the  question.  What  is  to 
become  of  Brooklyn?  will  the  people  who  live  over  the 
■way  on  our  street,  without  the  consolation  of  Jesus  Christ, 
ever  have  his  sympatliy  in  their  troubles?  will  those 
children  who  play  on  the  sidewalk  come  up  under  the 
restraints  of  our  holy  religion  ?  Then  it  is  a  question 
that  appeals  to  every  man's  heart — it  is  a  home  question 
— he  can  understand  it,  and  will  be  willing  to  support  it. 
I  will  illustrate:  During  the  last  war,  in  my  church  in 


OBJECTIONS  TO  FREE  CHURCHES  AXSWEREB.        233 

Philadelphia,  one  Sabbath  we  took  up  a  collection  for 
foreign  missions — a  most  important  cause — and  I  urged 
it  with  all  my  might,  asking  God  for  help.  The  collec- 
tion was  not  as  large  as  it  ought  to  have  been.  The  next 
Sabbath  night,  while  I  was  in  the  pulpit,  a  man  handed 
me  a  telegram.  I  opened  it,  and  I  read  it  to  the  people. 
It  was  an  appeal  from  the  army  before  Richmond,  saying, 
"There  are  three  thousand  men  down  here  bleeding  to 
death.  Send  us  lint,  send  us  bandages,  send  us  cordials, 
send  us  Christian  men  and  women  to  bind  up  the  wound- 
ed." I  had  not  long  to  speak.  I  read  the  telegram,  and 
then  I  said,  "  Men  and  women,  these  are  your  fathers,  and 
these  are  your  brothers,  dying  before  the  gates  of  Rich- 
mond. Will  you  send  them  cordials?  will  you  send 
them  bandages?  will  you  send  them  lint?  Pass  the 
baskets."  The  collection  was  gathered,  and  the  baskets 
came  back  burdened  with  the  trophies.  People  took  off 
tlieir  gold  rings  and  their  breastpins,  and  threw  them 
into  the  contribution.  It  was  a  home  question ;  it  struck 
every  man's  heart,  every  woman's  conscience,  and  the 
treasures  were  poured  forth.  Now  I  say  when  you  can 
make  the  people  of  this  country  understand  that  the  re- 
ligious question  is  a  home  question  ;  when  we  can  make 
them  feel  that,  while  we  have  moral  responsibility  for  the 
salvation  of  Hong  Kong,  and  Pekin,  and  Madras,  and 
Constantinople,  we  have  a  mightier  responsibility  for 
Brooklyn  ;  when  we  can  make  them  feel  that  in  the  sup- 
port of  a  free  church  they  not  only  contribute  toward 
the  religious  education  of  their  own  families,  but  of  all 
who  come  within  the  house  of  God — the  generosity  of 
the  people  will  exceed  any  thing  you  have  ever  antici- 
pated. 


23i        OBJEGTWXS  TO  FREE  CHURCHES  ANSWERED. 

Again,  some  have  objected  to  a  free  church  because  it 
destroys  tlie  home  feeling^  and  it  is  a  forcible  objection;  it 
is  so  mighty  an  objection,  that  if  I  can  not  meet  it,  I  will 
surrender  the  principle  advocated.  Destroy  the  home 
feeling!  Father  sitting  here  in  the  church,  mother  sit- 
ting there,  children  somewhere  else ;  or  if  the  church  be 
crowded  some  Sabbath,  you  can  not  get  in  at  all.  "We 
want  our  families  beside  us  in  the  house  of  God.  Seat- 
ed with  them  here,  we  hope  to  worship  with  them  in 
heaven."  To  this  objection  my  answer  is.  In  every  free 
church  let  the  pews  be  formally  assigned  without  refer- 
ence to  the  dollar  question,  priority  of  application  giving 
priority  of  choice,  pew  not  to  be  forfeited  except  in  the 
event  of  bad  behavior  or  non-attendance.  Then  a  man 
seated  in  it  with  his  family  has  a  home  feeling — more  so 
than  in  the  other  style  of  church.  If  disaster  come  to 
him,  and  his  fortune  is  gone,  and  he  can  pay  nothing, 
and  he  has  to  bring  his  children  home  from  the  school, 
and  move  from  a  fine  house  into  a  smaller  one,  and  put 
on  plainer  apparel,  he  sits  down  in  the  house  of  God, 
and  says,  "Here  is  a  house  from  which  I  am  certain  not 
to  be  turned  out;  here  we  will  be  prepared  for  heaven." 
If,  in  the  one  case,  there  is  a  home  feeling  when  the  pew- 
rent  system  is  in  force,  and  men  may  be  driven  out  be- 
cause they  lose  their  fortune  and  can  not  pay  their  pew- 
rent,  I  ask  you  if  there  is  not  a  better  home  feeling  in 
that  church  where  a  man  feels  that  no  earthly  disaster 
shall  affect  his  occupancy?  If  home  feeling  is  found  in 
any  church  on  earth,  it  will  be  found  in  a  free  church — 
the  seats  formally  assigned  and  occupied. 

But  there  are  others  who  may  oppose  the  free  church 
principle  on  the  ground  that  it  obliterates  social  distinction. 


OBJECTIOXS  TO  FREE  CHURCHES  ANSWERED.        235 

It  is  an  objection  oftener  thought  than  spoken,  but  it  is 
a  really  solid  objection.  It  is  an  important  question, 
"What  shall  be  the  social  influences  amidst  which  my 
family  will  be  placed  if  we  go  to  that  church?"  I  be- 
lieve in  good  blood,  and  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  bad 
blood.  I  believe  in  royal  blood.  In  some  families  the 
tide  seems  all  in  the  wrong  way ;  in  other  families  the 
tide  seems  all  in  the  right  way.  I  have  known  a  father 
and  mother  mean,  and  their  children  mean,  and  their 
grandchildren  mean,  and  the  rule  going  on  to  the  tenth 
generation — perhaps  for  all  eternity.  In  another  family 
I  have  seen  father  and  mother  good,  and  their  children 
good,  and  their  grandchildren  good  —  the  tide  of  virtue 
and  generosity  going  on  through  all  generations.  There- 
fore, I  believe  in  family  blood.  I  admit  that  God  nev- 
er calls  a  man,  if  he  is  intelligent,  to  associate  with  ig- 
norance, or  if  he  be  elegant,  to  associate  with  boorish- 
ness,  or  if  he  be  virtuous,  to  associate  with  vice. 

"  Wh3^,"says  somebody,  "I  am  afraid  to  go  to  such  a 
church  as  you  are  describing,  because  there  may  be  some 
that  come  to  that  church  whom  I  would  not  like  to  as- 
sociate with ;  and  how  would  I  feel  if  some  of  my  family 
should  marry  a  scavenger!"  Ah,  my  friend,  we  might 
have  the  Board  of  Trustees  resolve  that  no  one  need 
marry  a  scavenger  unless  she  wants  to !  In  every  free 
church,  just  as  in  every  pew-rental  church,  you  will  pick 
your  own  society.  While  your  Christian  heart  will  dic- 
tate kindness  and  courtesy  to  all  whom  you  meet  on 
Sabbaths,  you  will  not  be  obliged  to  run  to  those  who 
sit  in  the  same  church  and  tell  them  all  your  family 
affairs,  or  invite  them  to  your  house.  That  is  not  req- 
uisite.    If  there  be  in  a  pew -rental  church  fifty  sociaJ 


236        OBJECTIONS  TO  FREE  CHURCHES  ANSWERED. 

circles,  then  in  every  free  churcli  there  will  be  fifty  social 
circles.  I  can  think  of  only  one  class  of  persons  that 
will  be  very  much  offended  with  that  style  of  church. 
I  admire  a  man  who  has  made  a  large  fortune  honestly, 
and  who  holds  it  usefully.  I  admii^e  the  perseverance, 
and  the  pluck,  and  the  ingenuity,  and  the  tact.  I  rejoice 
in  his  success,  and  I  pray  to  God  that  the  hand  of  com- 
mercial disaster  may  never  dethrone  him.  But  men 
who,  by  some  freak  of  good  fortune,  are  thrown  to  the 
top,  and  who  use  their  means  for  the  purpose  of  fatten- 
ing their  own  vanity,  and  of  wounding  the  feelings  of 
those  who  are  not  as  fortunate  as  themselves,  excite  in 
me  such  unbounded  loathing  and  contempt  that  I  dare 
not  trust  myself  to  speak  of  them.  They  are  in  my  nos- 
trils like  the  stench  of  summer  carrion,  and  if  the  hand 
of  commercial  disaster  shall  tear  off  from  them  their  gold 
and  their  diamonds  and  their  trinkets,  it  will  take  one 
of  M'Allister's  best  and  most  powerful  microscopic  appa- 
ratus to  make  visible  to  the  naked  eye  the  noxious  in- 
sects. Their  wealth  equaled  by  their  stupidity  and  their 
iojnorance — such  men  will  abhor  the  idea  of  a  free  Chris- 
tian  church ;  but  rich  men  and  poor  men,  high  and  low 
men,  educated  men  and  ignorant  men,  who  believe  in 
the  brotherhood  of  man  and  the  fatherhood  of  God,  will 
accept  the  principle  laid  down  in  the  text,  and  rejoice 
when  in  any  church  it  is  illustrated:  "The  rich  and 
the  poor  meet  together:  the  Lord  is  the  maker  of  them 
all." 

Now,  my  friends,  I  have  answered  these  objections  to 
a  free  church,  not  because  my  own  congregation  make 
them — they  do  not  make  objections — but  thinking  that 
there  might  be  some  who  are  about  to  connect  them- 


OBJECTIOXS  TO  FREE  CHUMCHES  ANSWERED.       237 

selves  with  us  who  do  not  know  the  principles  upon 
which  our  church  is  to  be  founded.  I  will  saj  that  my 
soul  is  absorbed  in  this  idea.  It  has  been  a  matter  of 
personal  sacrifice  to  me  that  I  have  pleaded  for  it,  and  I 
say  to  all  ministers  of  the  Gospel  who  may  be  in  the 
house  to-night,  if  their  idea  is  a  large  salary  and  mag- 
nificent income,  they  had  better  never  plead  for  a  free 
church;  but  if,  on  the  other  hand,  their  idea  is  to  bring 
the  Gospel  of  Christ  to  the  masses  of  the  people  who  are 
without  Christ  and  without  God  in  the  world,  then  it  is 
a  very  satisfactory  idea,  and  will  give  them  a  reward  now 
iu  their  own  consciences  and  in  the  joys  of  heaven.  I 
commit  the  principle  first  to  God,  and  then  I  commit  it 
to  the  masses  of  the  people.  I  came  out  from  among 
them.  I  know  them  altogether.  I  am  in  sympathy 
w^ith  them.  My  father  and  mother  toiled  with  their 
hands  until  old  age  stooped  their  shoulders  and  made 
their  eye-sight  very  dim,  and  then  they  died,  leaving  us  a 
glorious  legac}^,  not  in  dollars  and  cents,  but  in  prayers 
and  Christian  example  that  this  world  will  never  rob  us 
of  In  the  hand  of  the  God  that  loved  them,  and  that  I 
love,  I  trust  this  principle.  I  tell  you  plainly  to-night 
that  I  would  rather  fail  in  this  attempt  to  give  the  Gos- 
pel to  the  masses  than  to  succeed  in  any  thing  else. 
Living  or  dying,  in  prosperity  or  in  sorrow,  in  good  re- 
port or  in  evil  report,  in  the  name  of  my  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  my  hope  in  life,  my  peace  in  death,  my  triumph 
in  eternity,  I  consecrate  to-night,  body,  mind,  and  soul  to 
this  one  enterprise.  Considering  what  God  has  done  for 
us  in  the  past,  we  would  be  cowards  now  to  distrust  him. 
Oh,  young  men  of  my  church,  buckle  on  the  whole  ar- 
mor of  God.     Do  you  know  that  if  you  start  life  in  the 


^238        OBJECTIONS  TO  FREE  CHURCHES  ANSWERED. 

service  of  Jesus  Christ,  you  start  well?  I  point  you 
to-nigbt  to  a  field  of  usefulness  than  which  God  never 
opened  a  grander.  Do  you  know  that  into  your  hands 
are  to  come  the  mighty  destinies  of  Christ's  kingdom 
very  soon ;  and  I  look  you  in  the  eye  and  I  ask  you  if, 
when  in  this  battle  these  older  men  shall  fall,  you  will 
catch  up  the  standard  ?     Quit  you  like  men  !    Be  strong! 

Then  I  see  in  this  audience  men  in  middle  life,  from 
thirty  to  fift}^  years  of  age.  What  think  you  of  giving 
a  free  Gospel  to  the  masses?  If  you  w\ant  to  make  up 
for  lost  time,  here  is  the  chance  to  do  it.  You  have  been 
down  in  the  world.  You  know  what  it  is  made  of  You 
have  deliberately  concluded  that  it  is  a  most  unsatis- 
factory portion.  Fall  into  line,  oh  ye  men  in  mid-life — 
men  between  thirty  and  fifty  j^ears  of  age.  The  battle 
may  be  hot,  but  I  am  not  afraid  to  lead  you,  and  I  wave 
the  sword  in  front  of  the  host,  crying.  Forward !  Let 
cowards  fly  !     Act  ye  like  sons  of  God ! 

But  there  arc  others  here  who  linger  by  the  banks 
of  the  river.  They  know  that  because  of  old  age  they 
must  soon  go  over.  You  have  had  many  a  good  time. 
Every  wrinkle  in  your  face  ought  to  be  a  hallelujah.  By 
what  blood  you  have  been  bought !  By  what  mercy  you 
have  been  defended!  You  can  not  sing  these  hymns  with 
as  firm  a  voice  as  once  you  sang  them;  and  you  came 
to  this  house  to-night  with  trembling  step — not  as  once 
you  came  to  a  religious  assemblage  —  and  you  look 
around,  and  your  comrades  are  gone,  and  your  best 
friends  are  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  and  you  feel 
that  soon  you  must  go  and  join  them.  You  feel  just 
like  a  farmer  on  a  summer-day  in  the  harvest-field,  who 
says,  "Now,  boys,  it  is  almost  night,  and  the  wind  is 


OBJECTIOXS  TO  FREE  CHURCHES  AXSWERED.        239 

from  the  east,  and  it  will  storm  before  morning;  let  ns 
get  in  a  few  miOre  sheaves."  For  you  the  hoar  is  com- 
ing in  which  no  man  can  work,  and  what  you  do  you 
must  do  now.  There  are  yet  two  or  three  or  four  sheaves 
for  you  to  reap  for  the  Lord's  garner.  Oh,  give  us  your 
prayers,  aged  men.  Give  us  what  strength  there  may- 
be still  remaining  in  your  arm;  and  then,  when  you  are 
gone,  we  will  tell  our  children  how  well  you  served  in 
the  temple,  and,  like  Elisha,  we  will  crj  as  when  Elijah 
went  up,  "  My  father,  my  father,  the  chariots  of  Israel, 
and  the  horsemen  thereof  I" 

What  I  say  to  one  I  say  to  all — from  those  who  sit  be- 
neath to  those  who  rise  above  me  in  the  galleries — what 
you  do  for  Christ,  do  quickly.  The  field  is  white,  the 
sickle  is  sharp,  the  reward  is  grand,  the  time  is  short, 
the  judgment  is  near!  What  thy  hand  fiudeth  to  do, 
do  it  now. 

Let  me  say  that  you  ought  to  toil  with  great  buoy- 
ancy. This  whole  earth  is  to  be  saved,  and  the  cities 
are  to  be  evangelized.  I  sometimes  hear  Christian  peo- 
ple talk  as  though  the  Church  of  Christ  is  to  be  defeat- 
ed ;  as  though  it  were  to  be  like  one  of  those  steamers, 
the  City  of  Boston  or  the  President^  that  went  out  with  a 
large  cargo  and  with  many  passengers,  and  has  never 
come  to  port,  and  never  will  come  to  port.  Some  of  you 
may  have  had  friends  on  some  of  those  steamers,  and  you 
waited  and  watched,  and  said,  "I  wonder  on  what  ice- 
berg they  shivered  !  I  wonder  in  what  fire  they  burned ! 
I  wonder  where  they  went  down  !"  and  you  cried  out 
in  your  soul,  "Oh,  treacherous  sea,  give  back  that  ship! 
give  her  back!  though  it  be  with  shivered  mast  and 
scarred  bulk-head,  and  pumps  all  working  to  keep  out 


240        OBJECTIONS  TO  FREE  CHURCHES  ANSWERED: 

the  leak,  and  passengers  with  faces  wan  with  hunger  and 
eyes  hollow  with  woe.  Give  her  back!"  The  ocean 
answered  not.  It  only  moaned  to  the  beach,  and  moan- 
ed to  the  sky.  "Ah!"  says  some  one,  "it  will  be  just 
like  that  with  the  Church.  She  will  never  come  into 
harbor."  I  deny  it.  She  has  had  a  rough  time,  and 
been  caught  in  many  a  hurricane,  and  driven  against 
many  a  rock,  and  sometimes  her  commanders  have  been 
at  their  wits'  end,  and  have  cried  out,  "  We  shall  go 
down !  We  shall  go  down !"  Christ  stands  at  the  helm, 
and  she  shall  outride  the  gale;  and  when  she  drops  an- 
chor on  the  beach  of  pearl,  all  heaven  will  throw  out 
signals  of  delight,  and  the  standards  will  wave  and  the 
bells  will  ring  because  the  voyage  is  over,  and  "the 
"wicked  cease  from  troubling,  and  the  weary  are  at  rest." 
In  that  day  of  triumph,  will  you  be  one  of  the  victors? 
Are  your  sins  pardoned?  Are  you  ready  for  Christian 
work?  Will  heaven  be  your  home?  As  I  was  enter- 
ing the  gates  of  this  building  to-night,  a  man  stopped  me 
and  said,  "  That  man  you  saw  last  night  at  eight  or  nine 
o'clock  is  dead."  I  said,  "  It  can  not  be  possible."  I 
was  there  at  nine  o'clock,  and  said,  "I  will  soon  see  you 
again" — for  he  was  here  last  Sabbath.  Now  they  tell 
me  he  is  gone !  Are  we  all  ready  ?  We  can  not  alwa3'S 
be  here.  It  can  not  be  that  all  these  people  will  meet 
each  other  again  in  this  building. 

When  the  Atlantic  struck  Mars  Head,  you  read  a  good 
many  telegrams,  going  all  over  the  country  through  the 
associated  press,  but  there  was  just  one  telegram  that 
struck  me  as  no  other  telegram  I  ever  saw.  It  was  sent 
by  some  man  whose  friends  were  in  Detroit.  He  had 
escaped  from  the  wreck,  and,  amidst  all  that  gloom,  and 


OBJECTIONS  TO  FREE  CHURCHES  ANSWERED.       241 

amidst  the  dead  bodies  that  laid  around  him,  he  wrote 
out  a  teleG^ram  of  one  word,  and  it  thrilled  all  throuo-h 
this  land.  That  word  was  "  Saved !"  Oh  !  what  good 
news  it  must  have  been  when  the  friends  got  it.  And 
I  think  there  are  some  here  to-night  who  have  made 
shipwreck  of  their  earthly  prospects,  and  they  have  been 
driven  against  the  rocks  of  disaster,  and  I  cry  out,  Oh 
that  now  the  strong  hand  of  Christ  might  be  reached 
down  to  pull  them  up  on  the  eternal  shore,  and  that  the 
tidings  might  thrill  to  the  throne,  Saved!  and  that  watch- 
men standing  on  the  ramparts  of  heaven  might  cry  to 
people  in  the  temple,  ^^  Saved T^  and  the  news  run  from 
street  to  street,  until  all  the  city  of  the  sun  shall  ring 
with  the  glorious  announcement,  ^^ Saved/  saved!"  for 
there  is  joy  among  the  angels  of  God  over  one  sinner 
that  repenteth. 


242  WOMAN'S   WAR  AGAINST  THE  BOTTLE. 


WOMAN'S  WAR  AGAINST  THE  BOTTLE. 

"Awake,  awake,  Deborah:  awake,  awake." — Judges  v.,  12. 

A  TEXT  of  five  words,  and  four  of  them  one  and  the 
same.  It  seems  that  the  men  of  Israel  had  lost 
their  courage.  Trampled  into  the  dust  by  their  oppress- 
ors, the  cowards  had  not  spirit  to  rise.  Their  vineyards 
destroyed,  their  women  dishonored,  their  children  slain, 
the  land,  was  dying  for  a  leader  worth}^  of  the  cause.  A 
holy  woman  by  the  name  of  Deborah  saw  the  desolation, 
and,  putting  her  trust  in  the  Lord,  sounded  the  battle- 
cry,  and  by  the  help  of  General  Barak  launched  into 
the  plain  ten  thousand  armed  men.  The  Canaanites,  of 
course,  came  out  with  a  larger  force.  They  came  out 
against  Israel  with  nine  hundred  iron  chariots,  each  of 
these  iron  chariots  having^  attached  to  the  sides  of  it 
long,  sharp  scythes,  so  that  when  these  engines  of  war 
were  driven  down  to  battle,  each  one  of  the  nine  hun- 
dred was  ready  to  cut  two  great  swathes  of  death.  But 
when  God  gives  a  mission  to  a  woman,  he  gives  her 
strength  and  grace  to  execute  it.  The  nine  hundred 
chariots  of  the  Canaanites  could  not  save  them.  They 
fly !  they  fly  !  horse  and  horseman,  chariot  and  chariot- 
eer, officers  and  troops,  in  one  wild  and  terrific  over- 
throw. Sisera,  their  leader,  is  so  frightened  in  the  con- 
riict,  that  he  can  not  wait  until  his  team  turns  round: 
he  leaps  from  the  chariot  and  starts,  full   run,  for  the 


WOJIAX'S    WAR  AGAINST  THE  BOTTLE.  243 

mountains.  Then  this  epic  of  the  text  was  composed, 
to  celebrate  the  grand  womanly  triumph:  "Awake, 
awake,  Deborah :  awake,  awake  !" 

My  friends,  an  army  of  Canaanitish  and  infernal  influ- 
ences has_i3Qme  down  to  destroy  this  fair  land.  They 
come  on,  armed  with  decanter,  and  demijohn,  and  legis- 
lative enactment,  and  brewer's  tank,  and  apothecary's 
bitters,  and  distiller's  "worm"  that  never  dieth.  To 
meet  these  influences,  some  very  brave  men  have  gone 
out  in  battle,  and  have  tried  to  break  to  pieces  these 
iron  chariots  of  destruction ;  but  for  the  most  part  the 
land  has  slept.  Indeed,  it  slept  until  a  few  weeks  ago, 
at  the  West,  when  the  Lord  God  uttered  his  voice  until 
it  rang  through  the  churches,  and  the  homes,  and  the 
gin -palaces,  and  off  upon  the  prairie,  saying,  "Awake, 
awake,  Deborah:  awake,  awake!"  And  now,  while  I 
speak,  this  great  Austerlitz  goes  on,  and  earth,  and  heav- 
en, and  hell  await  the  stupendous  issue. 

Befoi-e  I  proceed  to  discuss  the  modes  and  policies  by 
which  the  great  sin  of  drunkenness  is  to  be  assaulted,  I 
w.ant  to  tell  you  two  or  three  things  which  I  think  will 
bear  me  out  in  the  statement  that  something  radicnl 
needs  to  be  done.  The  first  fact  I  want  to  put  before 
you  is  this:  th[it  there  are  coming  up  a  vast  multitude 
of  children  in  this  countiy  who  have,  from  the  day  of 
their  birth,  a  thirst  for  strong  drink.  Whether  it  be  de- 
veloped in  early  life  or  not,  it  is  there  —  they  have  in- 
herited it.  Eio'ht  alono^  the  ancestral  line,  how  often 
goes  the  river  of  death  !  It  seems  as  if  their  cradle  is 
rocked  by  the  rum-fiend.  The  father  sits  down  to  make 
his  will.  He  says:  "In  the  nariie  of  God,  amen!  I  be- 
queath to  my  children  my  houses,  and  lands,  and  all  my 


244  WOMAN'S   WAH  AGAINST  THE  BOTTLE. 

property.  Share  and  share  alike  they  must.  Hereto 
I  affix  my  hand  and  seal,  in  the  presence  of  witnesses." 
But  that  father  may  at  the  same  time  be  making  a  will 
that  he  does  not  realize.  He  may  be  really  saying:  "In 
the  name  of  Disease,  and  Appetite,  and  Death,  amen! 
I  bequeath  to  my  children  my  thirst  for  strong  drink. 
My  tankards  shall  be  theirs,  my  condemnation  shall  be 
theirs.  In  the  ruin  that  I  have  wrought  for  tbem,  let 
them  share  and  share  alike.  Hereto  I  put  my  hand  and 
seal,  in  the  presence  of  all  the  astonished  host  of  heaven 
and  all  the  jubilant  harpies  of  hell."  He  does  not  know 
that  he  is  making  two  wills  at  the  same  time.  There  are 
young  men  in  this  house  to-day  wlio  have  had  two  in- 
heritances: one  an  inheritance  of  dollars  —  they  have 
nearly  spent  that;  the  other  an  inheritance  of  thirst  for 
strong  drink — they  have  not  spent  that. 

In  addition  to  this,  there  is  coming  up  from  the  lower 
haunts  of  society  an  uncounted  throng  of  children  who  ' 
have  been  familiar  with  the  odors  of  the  whisky-jug  and 
the  ale-pitcher  from  the  time  they  started  into  life.  In 
every  fibre  of  their  soul  they  feel  the  sting  of  parental 
indulgences,  and  while  your  children  to-day  will  be  in 
the  Sabbath -school  singing  "hosanna,"  there  will  be  a 
vaster  multitude — vaster  by  millions  and  millions — of 
little  children,  barefooted,  imbruted  in  their  counte- 
nances, filthy  and  uncombed,  who  will  be  singing  the 
sons^  of  the  drunkard.  Their  swaddlin^i^-clothes  were 
torn  off  the  winding-sheet  of  death.  Their  toy  in  infan- 
cy was  a  gin-bottle.  Tliey  were  baptized  from  the  laver;/ 
of  woe.  Obscene  songs  were  their  lullaby.  Their  in-* 
heritance  has  been  a  father's  curse  and  a  mother's  beast- 
liness.    Are  you  surprised  that  they  turn  out  badly? 


WOMAN \S   WAM  AGAINST  THE  BOTTLE.  2-io 

Aj,  if  one  out  of  ten  thousand  turns  out  any  thing  but 
badly,  you  ought  to  be  surprised. 

There  is  another  fact  I  want  to  present,  showing  that 
there  is  a  need  of  something  radical  on  this  subject,  and 
that  is  the  multiplicity  of  drinking-houses  all  over  our 
cities.  There  never  has  been  any  lack  of  these  establish- 
ments. There  never  has  been  much  reason  for  a  man's 
being  thirst}^  a  great  while.  But  it  was  once  only  like  an 
eruption  on  the  body  of  the  city  ;  now  it  has  become  a 
multitude  of  carbuncles  that  threaten  the  very  life  of  the 
community.  You  go  down  a  beautiful  street  and  see 
carpenters  at  work.  You  say,  "  I  wonder  what  they  are 
going  to  make  there?"  You  go  along  a  few  days  after, 
and  you  see  they  are  painting  an  ale-pitcher  on  the  sign, 
and  see  the  red  and  blue  light  in  the  lamp  at  the  door, 
as  though  kindled  by  a  spark  from  the  nether  world  to 
which  it  will  decoy  very  many  victims.  In  those  places 
the  villainies  of  your  city  are  concocted.  Those  are  the 
places  where  men  whet  their  courage  for  arson,  and  for 
garroting,  and  for  burglary,  and  for  murder.  I  can  re- 
member the  time  when  these  saloons  were  chiefly  on  the 
street  corners.  Now  they  flame  out  from  the  heart  of 
the  block  —  a  long  line  of  fortifications  leveling  their 
enginery  of  death.  Sometimes  they  call  them  "hotels." 
Sometimes  they  call  them  "wine-cellars."  Sometimes 
they  call  them  "  restaurants."  Sometimes  they  call  them 
"  retreats."  Sometimes  they  call  them  "  concert  saloons," 
where  music  plays  the  march  of  death.  Sometimes  they 
call  them  "  casinos,"  combining  all  the  abominations  of 
the  theatre,  grog-shop,  and  brothel.  Sometimes  they  call 
them  "lager-bier  saloons,"  under  which,  I  suppose,  there 
are  more  villainies  and  more  obscenities  than  under  any 


24:6  W03IAN'il   WAH  AGAINST  THE  BOTTLE. 

Other  name.  These  institutions  are  springing  up  all 
around  us.  They  come  like  some  fabulous  monster, 
taking  at  one  swallow  a  hundred  victims.  They  are 
plagues  sweating  on  your  great  thoroughfares,  and  rot 
ling  away  the  hfe  of  Brooklyn  and  New  York.  The} 
are  on  every  avenue — Fulton  Avenue,  Atlantic  Avenue, 
Lafayette  Avenue,  Gates  Avenue — girding  the  city  with 
a  chain  of  eternal  fire. 

We  can  not  even  have  the  laws  against  them  executed. 
All  through  this  country  it  is  against  the  law  to  sell  liq- 
uor on  the  Sabbath-day.  Where  is  the  city  that  keeps 
that  law?  Where  are  the  police?  Where  are  the  may- 
ors? Where  are  the  common  councils?  Where  are  the 
'legislative  assemblies?  The  fact  is,  that  when  the  Ee- 
publicans  are  in  power  they  dare  not  execute  the  law 
lest  they  lose  votes,  and  v/hen  the  Democrats  are  in  pow- 
er they  dare  not  execute  the  law  lest  they  lose  votes. 
Meanwhile,  between  these  political  parties  who  are  strug- 
gling for  the  spoils  of  office,  the  virtue  and  the  religion 
of  the  city  die. 

What  chance  is  there  for  the  morals  of  our  city  when 
these  places  are  so  easy  of  access,  and  when,  if  you  want 
to  get  out  of  the  smell  of  rum,  you  have  to  ride  five  or 
six  miles  out  of  town,  and  even  the  outskirts  of  the  city 
are  sometimes  worse  than  the  heart  of  it  ?  What  chance 
is  there  for  that  young  man?  Temptation  before  him, 
temptation  behind  him,  in  the  loft  above  him,  and  in  the 
cellar  beneath  him  ;  and  when  our  very  best  citizens  pat- 
ronize such  places!  They  are  cold,  and  they  must  go  in 
and  get  something  warm  ;  they  are  warm,  and  they  must 
get  something  to  cool  off.  They  lose  money,  and  begin 
to  drink  to  keep  up  their  spirits;  they  gain  something, 


WOMAN'S   WAJi  AGAJX;ST  THE  BOTTLE.  247 

and  then  they  can  afford  to  di-ink.  And  so  the  casks 
are  filled,  and  the  strychnine  is  poured  in,  and  the  leaks 
are  stopped,  and  the  faucets  are  drawn,  and  the  intoxica- 
tion is  swilled  down;  and  sometimes,  standing  before  pro- 
fessed Christian  men,  their  breath  is  so  foul  with  drink 
that  I  feel  tempted  to  bury  my  face  in  my  pocket-hand- 
kerchief 

Look  at  another  fact.  Many  of  the  drug-stores  of  our 
country,  that  ought  to  be  the  agencies  of  health,  are  be- 
coming the  means  of  dissipation  and  death.  There  are 
forms  of  disease  that  need  a  stimulus,  and  under  a  pru- 
dent and  skillful  physician  I  think  that  alcohol  has  an 
important  work  to  do;  but  what  have  you  to  say  about 
the  deceptions  practiced  upon  people  in  this  day  by  bit- 
ters— bitters  of  all  sorts — cordials,  tonics,  Hostetter  Bit- 
ters, Golden  Bitters,  Plantation  Bitters  —  Bitters  that 
make  a  man's  life  bitter,  and  his  death  bitter,  and  his 
eternity  bitter.  Bitters  !  Now,  I  say,  if  you  are  going 
to  blast  a  man  for  time  and  eternity,  give  him  a  fair 
chance.  Put  on  the  outside  of  the  bottle  what  it  is.  But 
a  man,  maintaining,  as  he  thinks,  his  sobriety,  goes  and 
gets  a  bottle  of  bitters  and  puts  it  on  his  desk.  That 
bottle  is  soon  gone.  After  a  while  he  gets  another,  and 
another,  and  another;  and  one  day,  while  he  is  seated  in 
his  room,  the  cork  flies  out  of  the  black  bottle  of  bitters, 
and  with  it  a  fiend  that  grapples  the  man  by  the  throat, 
and  says:  "Ah !  I  have  been  chasing  about  for  you  fif- 
teen years.  I  have  got  you  now.  Down  with  you  to 
perdition!"  If  you  propose  to  destroy  a  man,  give  him 
at  least  a  fair  fight. 

Take  two  appalling  statistics.  In  one  year  we  spent 
in  this  country  many  million  dollars  more  monev  in 

n 


248  WOIIAN'S   WAIi  AGAINST  THE  BOTTLE. 

making,  and  selling,  and  buying  intoxicating  drinks  tban 
for  the  woolen  goods,  and  cotton  goods,  and  flour,  and 
meal,  and  boots,  and  shoes,  and  clothing  of  the  people. 
In  other  words,  we  pay  in  this  country  much  more  to 
kill  the  people  than  to  make  them  live.  Put  that  down 
in  your  memorandum-books  for  one  item. 

Then  the  other  item  is  this:  If  we  should  take  all  the 
drunkards  in  this  country  and  gather  them  in  battle  ar- 
ray, five  men  abreast,  they  would  make  a  line  a  hundred 
miles  long.  So  that,  if  you  wanted  to  marshal  that  host, 
and  look  at  the  companies,  and  the  regiments,  and  the 
battalions,  and  you  wanted  to  review  them,  you  would 
have  to  mount  one  horse  and  ride  until  he  was  exhaust- 
ed, and  then  mount  another  horse  and  ride  until  he  was 
exhausted,  and  another  horse,  until  he  was  exhausted; 
and  then  if  you  wanted  to  marshal  that  great  host,  and 
had  a  voice  loud  enough  to  order  them  to  "Forward, 
march!"  their  step  would  make  the  earth  shake  and  the 
gates  of  hell  tremble.     That  is  the  other  item. 

iSrow  if  all  these  things  are  so,  is  it  not  time  that  some- 
thing great,  something  earnest,  something  radical  be 
done?  Eevolution  !  Eevolution  !  In  the  light  of  these 
things  I  come  to  consider  this  great  movement  which  has 
attracted  the  attention  of  this  whole  land  toward  the 
West.  You  ask  me,  as  I  have  often  been  asked  in  pri- 
vate— you  ask  me  silently  two  questions.  You  say,  in 
the  first  place,  "  Do  you  approve  of  that  assault  made  by 
the  women  of  the  West  upon  the  liquor  business?"  And 
in  the  second  place,  "  Would  you  have  the  same  assault 
and  the  same  scenes  enacted  here  at  the  East?"  I  take 
your  questions  separately  and  alone.  I  answer  your  first. 
You  say,  "Do  you  approve  of  the  assault  that  has  been 


WOMAN'S  WAR  AGAINST  THE  BOTTLE.  249 

made  by  the  -women  of  the  West  upon  the  grog-shops 
there?"  I  reply  that  there  have  been  some  things  clone 
there  that  I  have  no  sympathy  with,  and  I  also  assert 
that,  so  long  as  we  have  so  many  fools  masculine,  we 
ought  to  be  willing  to  have  a  few  fools  feminine.  Then 
I  go  further  on,  and  aver  that  the  campaign  waged  at  the 
West  by  the  women  against  the  grog-shops  of  Ohio,  and 
Illinois,  and  Indiana,  and  Michigan,  is  the  grandest  and 
most  magnificent  thing  that  has  been  on  earth  since  the 
day  when  Deborah  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  God  Al- 
mighty hurled  ruin  and  death  on  the  armed  oppressors 
of  Israel.  Why,  it  seems  that  by  the  force  of  prayer — 
certainly  there  can  not  be  any  thing  wrong  about  that; 
and  by  the  force  of  Christian  song — certainly  there  can 
not  be  any  thing  wrong  about  that — there  were  in  a  lit- 
tle while  three  hundred  saloons  shut  up,  and  in  some  vil- 
lages all  the  drinking-places  were  abandoned.  You  tell 
me  they  will  be  open  again  very  soon.  I  reply,  is  it 
nothing  to  shut  up  the  fires  of  hell  for  six  weeks? 
Why,  it  seems  that  these  men  engaged  in  that  business 
did  not  know  how  to  cope  with  this  kind  of  warfare. 
They  knew  how  to  fight  the  Maine  Liquor  Law,  and 
they  knew  how  to  fight  the  National  Temperance  Socie- 
ty, and  they  know  how  to  fight  the  Sons  of  Temperance 
and  Good  Samaritans;  but  when  Deborah  appeared  upon 
the  scene,  Sisera  took  to  his  feet  and  got  to  the  mount- 
ains. It  seems  that  they  did  not  know  how  to  contend 
against  "Coronation,"  and  "Old  Hundred,"  and  "Brattle 
Street,"  and  "  Bethany,"  they  were  so  very  intangible. 
These  men  found  that  they  could  not  accomplish  much 
against  that  kind  of  warflire,  and  in  one  of  the  cities  a 
German  regiment  was  brought  out  all  armed  to  disperse 


250  WOMAN'S   WAH  AGAINST  THE  BOTTLE, 

the  women.  They  came  down  in  battle  array ;  but,  ob, 
what  poor  success !  for  that  German  regiment  was  made 
■up  of  gentlemen,  and  gentlemen  do  not  like  to  shoot 
women  with  hymn-books  in  their  hands.  Oh,  they  found 
that  gunning  for  female  prayer-meetings  was  a  very  poor 
business !  No  real  damage  was  done,  although  there  has 
been  threat  of  violence  after  threat  of  violence  all  over 
the  land.  Let  us  give  fair  warning  to  all  military  com- 
panies, and  to  all  mayors,  and  to  all  courts  of  law,  that 
on  the  day  that  one  of  these  Christian  women  engaged 
in  this  holy  war  shall,  under  the  point  of  soldiers'  bayo- 
net, or  under  the  stroke  of  police  club,  fall  down  wound- 
ed or  slain,  on  that  day  there  will  be  a  fire  kindled  in 
this  countr}^,  a  fire  of  indignation  and  national  wrath, 
that  all  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Ohio  and 
the  Hudson  can  not  put  out;  and  the  influence  will  keep 
on  rolling  over  this  whole  country,  until  the  last  liquor 
shop,  and  the  last  distillery,  and  the  last  gin  store,  and 
the  last  brewery,  shall  be  trampled  out  under  the  feet 
of  an  indignant  people.  I  tell  you  that  the  curse  of  the 
Lord  God  Almighty  is  on  that  business  forever  and  for- 
ever, amen  ! 

They  say  that  it  was  not  dignified  for  these  women— 
they  ought  to  have  been  home  crocheting,  or  watching 
the  loaves  of  bread  in  the  oven  to  see  that  they  did  not 
get  too  brown  and  hard.  Oh,  my  soul,  which  would 
have  been  most  dignified?  to  have  staid  in  the  homes 
already  desolated  by  rum,  shivering  amidst  half- clad 
children,  waiting  for  the  staggering  step  of  the  father,  or 
brother,  or  son,  or  to  put  on  the  only  hat  and  shawl  that 
had  not  been  pawned  away  by  the  companion,  and  go 
out  under  the  leadership  of  some  great-souled  Deborah, 


WOMAN'S   WAIi  AGAIXST  THE  BOTTLE.  251 

and  with  the  famished  family  at  the  back,  attempt  with 
the  artillery  of  prayer  and  song  to  put  an  end  to  those 
institutions  where  the  domestic  ruin  had  originated? 
Who  are  you,  that,  seated  in  your  homes  of  plenty  and 
sobriety,  you  should  be  so  severely  critical  of  these 
women  of  the  West,  who  not  for  personal  display,  not 
for  a  play  spell,  but  because  they  wanted  to  get  back 
the  homes  of  which  they  had  been  robbed,  and  the  chil- 
dren's inheritance,  and  the  souls  of  the  men  who  had 
been  imperiled  by  strong  drink,  went  forth  to  do  their 
duty  ?  When  my  voice  shall,  through  the  printing-press, 
reach  those  women  at  the  West,  I  want  to  say  to  them, 
"God  speed  you  in  the  work!"  "Awake,  awake,  Deb- 
orah :  awake,  awake."  Nine  hundred  chariots  can  not 
do  you  any  harm.  The  Lord  of  Hosts  is  with  you,  and 
he  is  mightier  than  all  that  can  be  against  you. 

Now  I  come  to  answer  the  second  question,  "Would 
you  have  the  same  kind  of  war  upon  the  liquor  estab- 
lishments made  at  the  East,  and  in  our  midst,  as  at  the 
West?"  I  say  most  emphatically,  NO;  but  for  different 
reasons  from  what  I  have  ever  heard  given.  It  is  not 
because  I  think  that  the  women  of  the  West  were  un- 
dignified or  unchristian,  it  is  not  because  I  think  that 
the  women  of  Brooklyn  are  too  good  for  such  a  holy 
iconoclasm ;  but  it  is  because  there  seems  to  be  no  Deb- 
orah with  sufficient  f;iitb  in  God  to  lead  forth  the  host. 
Here  at  the  East  we  are  all  watching  to  see  what  some- 
body else  will  say,  and  we  are  bound  hand  and  foot  by 
the  conventionalities  of  society  more  than  at  the  West; 
and  at  the  flutter  of  a  newspaper,  we  are  so  frightened 
that  we  are  not  fit  for  any  great  warfare  of  the  kind  of 
which  I  speak.      I  will,  however,  say,  oh  mothers,  and 


252  W0MA2i'S  WAE  AGAINST  THE  BOTTLE. 

sisters,  and  daughters  of  Brooklyn !  I  really  think  if 
3^ou  had  as  nuich  faith  in  God  as  your  sisters  at  the 
West  have,  and  the  same  recklessness  of  human  criti- 
cism, I  really  believe  that  in  one  month  three-fourths 
of  the  grog-shops  of  Brooklyn  would  be  closed,  and  there 
would  be  running  through  the  gutters  of  the  streets  Bur- 
gundy, and  Cognac,  and  Heidsick,  and  old  Port,  and 
Schiedam  schnapps,  and  lager-bier,  and  you  would  save 
your  fathers,  and  your  husbands,  and  your  sons,  first, 
from  a  drunkard's  grave,  and,  secondly,  from  a  drunk- 
ard's hell ! 

But  the  time  has  not  come.     I  have  read  the  reports 

I  of  the  women  who  have  assembled  in  this  city  in  differ- 
ent churches,  and  I  see  that  the  time  has  not  come.  A 
woman^  can  not  do,  tjsat  which  she  thinks  she  can  not, 

i  and  yoi\  €an  hot.  There  is  no  Deborah  with  enough 
faith  in  God  and  recklessness  of  human  criticism  to  go 
forth  in  the  work.  I  really  think  that,  perhaps,  things 
have  got  to  be  worse  before  they  are  any  better.  I  do 
not  know  but  that  there  must  yet  be  one  dead  in  each 
house,  slain  by  this  destroying  angel,  and  that  the  piano 
that  you  brought  into  your  parlor  last  week  will  have 
to  go  down  under  the  sheriff's  hammer,  and  some  mid- 
night your  son  be  tossed  into  your  front  door  dead- 
drunk,  and  the  rose  on  your  daughter's  cheek  fade  un- 
der the  breath  of  the  rum-fiend  as  her  father  stoops  over 
to  kiss  her  "  good-night,"  and  this  tornado  of  domestic 
desolation  go  on  until  our  great  cities  shall  be  one 
wreck  of  dissipation  and  crime^"'!  do  not  know  but  it 
will  have  to  be  that  way  before  the  women  of  the  East 
are  as  brave  as  the  women  of  the  West. 

But  since  we  are  not  ready  for  that  war,  there  is  some- 


K 


W0MA2i\S   WAIi  AGALYST  THE  BOTTLE.  253 

thing  in  whicli  all  the  women  of  my  church  are  ready 
to  engage,  and  in  which  all  the  women  of  this  city  are 
ready  to  be  marshaled,  and  that  is  in  some  kind  of  war 
against  the  drinking  usages  of  society.  Oh,  young  wom- 
an, never  give  your  hand  in  marriage  to  a  man  who  tam- 
pers with  strong  drink,  any  more  than  you  would  take 
hold  of  a  basilisk!  You  would  reform  him  by  marriage, 
would  you?  Never!  I  have  seen  the  experiment  tried 
too  often,  and  the  w^omen  who  made  the  unsuccessful 
experiment,  by  marriage,  of  reforming  a  man,  some  of 
them  are  in  suicides'  graves,  some  are  in  the  alms-house, 
and  all  the  rest  are  wretched,  without  one  exception. 
Eeform  him,  will  you?  Why,  where  one  woman  has 
succeeded  in  that  experiment,  there  are  five  hundred 
women  buried  in  the  ruins.  Young  woman,  if  a  young 
man  does  not  think  enough  of  you  to  give  up  the  wine- 
cup,  tell  him  plainly  that  you  will  not  contest  for  his  af-*  i 
fections  with  so  vile  a  rival.  Do  not  be  hasty  to  leave  ! 
your  father's  house  in  such  an  unseaworthy  craft.  They  { 
say  that  Captain  Williams  was  drunk  when  he  drove  the  ' 
Atlantic  on  Mars'  Head,  and  look  out  how  you  trust  your 
voyage  of  life  in  the  hands  of  an  inebriate.  The  rocks! 
the  rocks  I 

Let  the  mothers  teach  their  children  from  the  very 
start  what  an  accursed  thing  rum  is.  Give  the  lesson 
to  them  with  "Brown's  Shorter  Catechism."  Give  ev- 
ery emphasis  to  the  truth,  and  then  pray,  morning,  noon, 
and  night,  and  until  the  day  of  your  death,  that  your 
sons — ay,  3^our  daughters,  too,  may  be  saved  from  these 
overwhelming  temptations. 

Let  sisters  make  the  home  every  evening  bright,  make 
it  very  bright     You  do  not  know  the  allurements  that 


254  WOMAN'S   WAE  AGAINST  THE  BOTTLE. 

are  around  your  brother.  You  can  not  afford  to  stand 
by  his  bruised  brow  when  he  is  dead,  as  I  knew  a  sister 
who  once  did  when  the  night  before  she  had  heard  her 
brother  howhng  in  the  dehrium,  while  three  men  could 
not  hold  him  down,  for  he  arose  in  the  couch  and  beat 
back  imaginary  demons,  crying,  "Begone I  begone!" 
3Yii-are  not  ready  for  the  crusade  of  the  West  here,  but 
I  want  to  marshal  every  woman  in  this  house  in  one  of 
three  regiments.  In  the  first  place,  we  will  have  a  regi-\ 
ment  of  mothers,  their  step  not  so  strong  as  once  it  was, 
for  they  have  come  a  great  way ;  but  their  faith  in  God, 
mighty — the  God  who  has  never  forsaken  them.  Alas! 
for  the  mother  who  bends  over  the  son  scorched  with 
this  fiery  sirocco.  0  God !  appease  her  agony  for  a  little 
while. 

In  the  second  regiment,  we  will  have  all  the  wives  of 
the  country  ;  some  of  their  homes  already  invaded  by 
this  evil ;  their  domestic  joy  somewhat  shaken  ;  the  next 
ten  years  charged  with  a  good  deal  of  uncertaintj^ 

^i'he  third  regiment  will  be  made  up  of  the  daughters 
of  the  land ;  their  comfort  and  their  respectability  de- 
pendent upon  the  sobriety  of  their  parents;  their  brow 
not  yet  clouded;  their  lips  unacquainted  with  the  acrid 
draught  that  a  drunkard's  chiUl  always  has  to  drink. 

A  man  said  to  a  little  girl  going  along  the  street, 
"Why,  Jennie,  I  don't  see  you  any  more.  You  used  to 
come  to  my  house  begging  for  cold  victuals.  I  haven't 
seen  you  for  weeks.  Where  have  you  been,  Jennie?" 
"  Oh !"  she  replied,  "  we  don't  want  cold  victuals  any 
more.  Papa  don't  drink  now,  and  so  we  have  warm  vic- 
tuals."    God  have  mercy  on  the  drunkard's  child ! 

Isow  the  three  regiments  are  formed.     Forward !  ye 


W0MA2i'S   WAE  AGAIXST  THE  BOTTLE.  255 

women  baptized  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Forward !  into-  the 
strife.  Your  ensigns  shall  not  be  stained  with  tears  ot 
blood.  No  skeleton  will  mark  the  line  of  your  march  ; 
but  in  the  wake  of  this  great  army  there  will  smile  a 
liarvest  of  reformed  inebriates,  and  there  will  be  heard 
the  shout  of  children  at  the  return  of  their  fathers  from 
the  captivity  of  the  wine-cup.  The  mountains  and  the 
liills  will  break  forth  into  singing,  and  all  the  trees  of  the 
wood  will  clap  their  hands.  "Instead  of  the  thorn  shall 
come  the  fir-tree ;  instead  of  the  brier  shall  come  the 
myrtle-tree ;  and  it  shall  be  to  the  Lord  for  a  name,  for 
an  everlasting  sign  that  shall  not  be  cut  off."  — —  I  '^- 
Postponing  until  next  Sabbath  morning  what  I  have 
to  say  to  the  men  who  are  tampering  with  strong  drinks, 
postponing  until  next  Sabbath  morning  my  counsel  to 
all  those  who  have  already  the  shackles  fastened  upon 
tliem,  postponing  until  next  Sabbath  morning  the  com- 
pletion of  the  discourse  that  I  have  begun  now,  I  will 
only  say  to  the  families  of  my  congregation,  banish  the 
wine -cup  from  your  table,  dash  the  beaker  from  your 
lip,  and  in  the  strength  of  God  resolve  that  you  will  no 
more  have  any  thing  to  do  with  strong  drink ;  for  I  tell 
you  now  that  there  is  a  multitude  of  you  kept  away  from 
Christ  by  intoxicating  liquor,  and  there  are  some  of  you 
who  profess  to  be  followers  of  Jesus,  members  of  my 
church,  who  are  drinking  a  little  too  much.  Though 
you  have  not  gone  far  on  in  sin,  though  you  may  never 
liave  been  intoxicated,  as  I  suppose  you  have  not,  I 
know  some  of  you  are  drinking  a  little  too  much,  and 
so  I  ask  you  all  to  abstain.  Come  out  on  the  side  of  so- 
briety.    Come  out  on  the  side  of  the  Christian  religion. 

Let  me  tell  you  now,  no  drunkard  hath  eternal  life,  and 

11* 


256  WOMAN'S  WAR  AGAINST  THE  BOTTLE. 

that  some  of  you  are  running  an  awful  risk  of  being 
drunkards.  May  the  Lord  God  Almighty  save  you,  and 
me,  and  our  families,  and  this  whole  country  from  the 
scathing,  scalding,  blasting,  damning  influence  of  strong 
drink! 


TEE  PROUD  RID  EH   UNHORHED.  267 


THE  PROUD  RIDER  UNHORSED. 

"And  as  he  journeyed,  he  came  near  Damascus:  and  suddenly  there 
shined  round  about  him  a  light  from  heaven :  and  he  fell  to  the  earth, 
and  heard  a  voice  saying  unto  him,  Saul,  Saul,  why  persecutest  thou  me? 
And  he  said,  Who  art  thou.  Lord  ?  And  the  Lord  said,  I  am  Jesus  whom 
thou  persecutest." — Acts  ix.,  3-5. 

THE  Damascus  of  Bible  times  still  stands,  with  a 
population  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  thousand. 
It  was  a  gay  city  of  white  and  glistering  architecture,  its 
minarets  and  crescents  and  domes  playing  with  the  light 
of  the  morning  sun;  embowered  in  groves  of  olive,  and 
citron,  and  orange,  and  pomegranate;  a  famous  river 
plunging  its  brightness  into  the  scene;  a  city  by  the  an- 
cients styled  "a  pearl  surrounded  by  emeralds." 

A  group  of  horsemen  are  advancing  upon  that  city. 
Let  the  Christians  of  the  place  hide,  for  that  cavalcade 
coming  over  the  hills  is  made  up  of  persecutors;  their 
leader  small  and  unattractive  in  some  respects,  as  leaders 
sometimes  are  insignificant  in  person  :  witness  the  Duke 
of  Wellington  and  Dr.  Archibald  Alexander.  But  there 
is  something  very  intent  in  the  eye  of  this  man  of  the 
text,  and  the  horse  he  rides  is  lathered  with  the  foam  of 
a  long  and  quick  travel  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-five 
miles.  He  cries  "  Go  'long  "  to  his  steed,  for  those  Chris- 
tians must  be  captured  and  silenced,  and  that  religion  of 
the  cross  must  be  annihilated.  Suddenly  the  horses  shy 
off,  and  plunge  until  the  riders  are  precipitated.     Freed 


258  THE  PROUD  RIDER   UNHORSED. 

from  their  riders,  the  horses  bound  snorting  away.  You 
know  that  dumb  animals,  at  the  sight  of  an  eclipse,  or  an 
earthquake,  or  any  thing  like  a  supei-natural  appearance, 
sometimes  become  very  uncontrollable.  A  new  sun  had 
been  kindled  in  the  heavens,  putting  out  the  glare  of  the 
ordinary  sun.  Christ,  with  the  glories  of  heaven  wrapped 
about  him,  looked  out  from  a  cloud  and  the  splendor  was 
insufferable,  and  no  wonder  the  horses  sprang  and  the 
equestrians  dropped.  Dust-covered  and  bruised,  Saul  at- 
tempts to  get  up,  shading  his  eyes  with  his  hand  from 
the  severe  lustre  of  the  heavens,  but  unsuccessfully,  for 
he  is  struck  stone  blind  as  he  cries  out,  "Who  art  thou, 
Lord?"  and  Jesus  answered  him,  "I  am  the  one  you 
have  been  chasing.  He  that  whips  and  scourges  those 
Damascine  Christians,  whips  and  scourges  me.  It  is  not 
their  back  that  is  bleeding;  it  is  mine.  It  is  not  their 
heart  that  is  breaking;  it  is  mine.  I  am  Jesus  whom 
thou  persecutest." 

From  that  wild,  exciting,  and  overwhelming  scene 
there  rises  up  the  greatest  preacher  of  all  the  ages — Paul, 
in  whose  behalf  prisons  were  rocked  down,  before  whom 
soldiers  turned  pale,  into  whose  hand  Mediterranean  sea- 
captains  put  control  of  their  shipwrecking  craft,  and  whose 
epistles  are  the  av ant  courier  oi  \i  resurrection-day. 

I  learn  first  from  this  scene  that  a  ivorldly  fall  some- 
times precedes  a  spiritual  upVfiincj.  A  man  does  not  get 
much  sympathy  by  falling  off*  a  horse.  People  say  he 
ouoht  not  to  have  o;ot  into  the  saddle  if  he  could  not  ride. 
Those  of  us  who  were  brought  up  in  the  country  remem- 
ber well  how  the  workmen  laughed  when,  on  our  way 
back  from  the  brook,  we  suddenly  lost  our  ride.  At  the 
close  of  the  war,  when  the  army  passed  in  review  at  Wash- 


THE  PROUD  KID E It   UXHORSED.  259 

ington,  if  a  general  had  toppled  from  the  stirrups  it  would 
have  been  a  national  merriment.  Here  is  Paul  on  horse- 
back—  a  proud  man,  riding  on  with  Government  docu- 
ments in  his  pocket,  a  gi-aduate  of  a  most  famous  school 
in  which  the  celebrated  Dr.  Gamaliel  had  been  a  professor, 
perhaps  having  already  attained  two  of  the  three  titles  of 
the  school — Rab,  the  first ;  Rabbi,  the  second ;  and  on  his 
way  to  Rabbak,  the  third  and  highest  title.  I  know  from 
his  temperament  that  his  horse  was  ahead  of  the  other 
horses.  But  without  time  to  think  of  what  posture  he 
should  take,  or  without  any  consideration  for  his  dignity, 
he  is  tumbled  into  the  dust.  And  yet  that  was  the  best 
ride  Paul  ever  took.  Out  of  that  violent  fall  he  arose 
into  the  apostleship.  So  it  has  been  in  all  the  ages,  and 
so  it  is  now. 

You  will  never  be  worth  any  thing  for  God  and  the 
Church  until  you  lose  fifty  thousand  dollars,  or  have  your 
reputation  npset,  or  in  some  way,  somehow,  are  thrown 
and  humiliated.  You  must  go  down  before  you  go  up. 
Joseph  finds  his  path  to  the  Egyptian  court  through  the 
pit  into  w^hich  his  brothers  threw  him.  Daniel  would 
never  have  walked  amidst  the  bronzed  lions  that  adorn- 
ed the  Babylonish  throne  if  he  had  not  first  walked 
amidst  the  real  lions  of  the  cave.  And  Paul  marshals 
all  the  sfenerations  of  Christendom  bv  fiillins^  flat  on  his 
face  on  the  road  to  Damascus.  Men  who  have  been  al- 
ways prospered  may  be  efiicient  servants  of  the  world, 
but  will  be  of  no  advantage  to  Christ.  You  may  ride 
majestically  seated  on  your  charger,  rein  in  hand,  foot  in 
stirrup,  but  you  will  never  be  worth  any  thing  spiritually 
until  3'OU  fall  off.  They  vi^ho  graduate  from  the  school 
of  Christ  with  the  highest  honors  have  on  their  diploma 


260  THE  PROUD  RIDER   UXH0R8ED. 

the  seal  of  a  lion's  mudd}^  paw,  or  tlie  plash  of  an  angry 
wave,  or  the  drop  of  a  stray  teai*,  or  the  brown  scorch  of 
a  persecuting  fire.  In  nine  hundred  and  ninety -nine 
cases  out  of  the  thousand  there  is  no  moral  or  spiritual 
elevation  until  there  has  been  a  thorough  worldly  upset- 
ting. 

Again,  I  learn  from  the  subject  that  the  religion  of 
Christ  is  not  a  pusillanimous  thing.  People  in  this  day 
try  to  make  us  believe  that  Christianity  is  something  for 
men  of  small  calibre,  for  women  with  no  capacity  to  rea- 
son, for  children  in  the  infant-ckiss  under  six  years  of  age, 
but  not  for  stalwart  men.  Look  at  this  man  of  the  text! 
Do  you  not  think  that  the  religion  that  could  capture 
such  a  man  as  that  must  have  some  power  in  it?  He 
was  a  logician,  he  was  a  metaphysician,  he  was  an  all-con- 
quering orator,  he  was  a  poet  of  the  highest  type.  He 
had  a  nature  that  could  swamp  the  leading  men  of  his 
own  day,  and,  hurled  against  the  Sanhedrim,  he  made  it 
tremble.  He  learned  all  he  could  get  in  the  school  of  his 
native  village;  then  he  had  gone  to  a  higher  school,  and 
there  mastered  the  Greek  and  the  Hebrew,  and  perfected 
himself  in  belles-lettres^  until  in  after  years  he  astonished 
the  Cretans,  and  the  Corinthians,  and  the  Athenians,  by 
quotations  from  their  own  authors.  I  have  never  found 
any  thing  in  Carlyle,  or  Goethe,  or  Herbert  Spencer,  that 
could  compare  in  strength  or  beauty  with  Paul's  Epistles. 
I  do  not  think  there  is  any  thing  in  the  writings  of  Sir 
"William  Hamilton  that  shows  such  mental  discipline  as 
you  find  in  Paul's  argument  about  justification  and  the 
resurrection.  I  have  not  found  any  thing  in  Milton  finer 
in  the  way  of  imagination  than  I  can  find  in  Paul's  illus- 
trations drawn  from  the  amphitheatre.     There  was  noth- 


THE  PROUD  RIDER   UNHORSED.  261 

ing  in  Robert  Emmet  pleading  for  his  life,  or  in  Edmund 
Burke  arraigning  Warren  Hastings  in  Westminster  Hall, 
that  compared  with  the  scene  in  the  court-room,  when 
before  robed  officials  Paul  bowed  and  began  his  speech, 
saj'ing,  "I  think  myself  happy.  King  Agrippa,  because  I 
shall  answer  for  myself  this  day."  I  repeat,  that  a  re- 
ligion that  can  capture  a  man  like  that  must  have  some 
power  in  it.  It  is  time  you  stopped  talking  as  though 
all  the  brain  of  the  world  were  opposed  to  Christianity. 
Where  Paul  leads,  we  can  afford  to  follow.  I  am  glad 
to  know  that  Christ  has  in  the  different  ages  of  the  world 
had  in  his  discipleship  a  Mozart  and  a  Handel  in  music ; 
a  Raphael  and  a  Reynolds  in  painting ;  an  Angelo  and  a 
Canova  in  sculpture;  a  Rush  and  a  Harvey  in  medicine; 
a  Grotius  and  a  Washington  in  statesmanship ;  a  Black- 
stone,  a  Marshall,  and  a  Kent  in  law;  and  the  time 
will  come  when  the  religion  of  Christ  will  conquer  all 
the  observatories  and  universities,  and  Philosophy  will 
through  her  telescope  behold  the  morning  star  of  Jesus, 
and  in  her  laboratory  see  "  that  all  things  work  together 
for  good,"  and  with  her  geological  hammer  discover  the 
"  Rock  of  Ages."  Oh,  instead  of  cowering  and  shivering 
when  the  skeptic  stands  before  you  and  talks  of  religion 
as  though  it  were  a  pusillanimous  thing — instead  of  that, 
take  your  New  Testament  from  your  pocket  and  show 
him  the  picture  of  the  intellectual  giant  of  all  the  ages, 
prostrated  on  the  road  to  Damascus  while  his  horse  is 
fljang  wildly  away ;  then  ask  your  skeptic  what  it  was 
that  frightened  the  one  and  threw  the  other?  Oh  no,  it 
is  no  w^eak  Gospel.  It  is  a  glorious  Gospel.  It  is  an  all- 
conquering  Gospel.  It  is  an  omnipotent  Gospel.  It  is 
the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God  unto  salvation. 


262  THE  FMOUD  RIDER   UNHORSED. 

Again,  I  learn  from  the  text  a  man  can  not  become  a 
Christian  until  he  is  unhorsed.  The  trouble  is,  we  want 
to  ride  into  the  kingdom  of  God,  just  as  the  knight  rode 
into  castle  gate  on  pal  fry,  beautifully  caparisoned.  We 
want  to  come  into  the  kingdom  of  God  in  fine  style. 
No  kneeling  down  at  the  altar,  no  sitting  on  "anxious 
seats,"  no  crying  over  sin,  no  begging  at  the  door  of  God's 
mercy.  Clear  the  road,  and  let  us  come  in  all  prancing 
in  the  pride  of  our  soul.  No,  we  will  never  get  into 
heaven  that  way.  We  must  dismount.  There  is  no 
knight-errantry  in  religion,  no  fringed  trappings  of  repent- 
ance, but  an  utter  prostration  before  God,  a  going  down 
in  the  dust,  with  the  cry,  "  Unclean,  unclean  !" — a  bewail- 
ing of  the  soul,  like  David  from  the  belly  of  hell — a  going 
down  in  the  dust,  until  Christ  shall  by  his  grace  lift  us 
up  as  he  lifted  Paul.  Oh,  proud-hearted  sinner,  you  must 
get  off  that  horse.  May  a  light  from  the  throne  of  God 
brighter  than  the  sun  throw  you!  Come  down  into  the 
dust  and  cry  for  pardon,  and  life,  and  heaven. 

Again,  I  learn  from  this  scene  of  the  text  that  the  grace 
of  God  can  overcome  the  persecutor.  Christ  and  Paul  were 
boys  at  the  same  time  in  different  villages,  and  Paul's  an- 
tipathy to  Christ  was  increasing.  He  hated  every  thing 
about  Christ.  He  was  going  down  then  with  writs  in  his 
pockets  to  have  Christ's  disciples  arrested.  He  was  not 
going  as  a  sheriff  goes,  to  arrest  a  man  against  whom  he 
has  no  spite,  but  Paul  was  going  down  to  arrest  those 
people  because  he  was  glad  to  arrest  them.  The  Bible 
says,  "He  breathed  out  slaughter."  He  wanted  them 
captured,  and  he  wanted  them  butchered.  I  hear  the 
click,  and  clash,  and  clatter  of  the  hoofs  of  the  galloping 
steeds  on  the  way  to  Damascus.    Oh !  do  you  think  that 


THE  PROUD  EIDER   UXHORSED.  263 

that  proud  man  on  horseback  can  ever  become  a  Chris- 
tian? Yes!  there  is  a  voice  from  heaven  like  a  thun- 
der-clap uttering  two  words,  the  second  word  the  same 
as  the  first,  but  uttered  with  more  emphasis,  so  that  the 
proud  equestrian  may  have  no  doubt  as  to  who  is  meant, 
^^ Saul!  Saul!  That  man  was  saved,  and  he  was  a  per- 
secutor; and  so  God  can  by  his  grace  overcome  any  per- 
secutor. The  days  of  sword  and  fire  for  Christians  seem 
to  have  gone  by.  The  bayonets  of  Napoleon  I.  pried 
open  the  "Inquisition"  and  let  the  rotting  w^retches  out. 
The  ancient  dungeons  around  Rome  are  to-day  mere 
curiosities  for  the  travelers.  The  Coliseum,  where  w^ild 
beasts  used  to  suck  up  the  life  of  the  martyrs  while  the 
emperor  watched  and  Lolia  Paulina  sat  with  emerald 
adornments  worth  sixty  million  sesterces,  clapping  her 
hands  as  the  Christians  died  under  the  paw  and  the  tooth, 
of  the  lion — that  Coliseum  is  a  ruin  now.  The  scene  of 
the  Smithfield  fires  is  a  hay-market.  No  emperor  again 
w^ill  lead  the  pope's  mule  through  St.  Mark's  Square. 
The  day  of  fire  and  sword  for  Christians  seems  to  have 
gone  by;  but  has  the  day  of  persecution  ceased?  No. 
Are  you  not  caricatured  for  your  religion?  In  propor- 
tion as  you  try  to  serve  God  and  be  faithful  to  him,  are 
you  not  sometimes  maltreated?  That  woman  finds  it 
hard  to  be  a  Christian,  as  her  husband  talks  and  jeers 
while  she  is  trying  to  say  her  prayers  or  read  the  Bible. 
That  daughter  finds  it  hard  to  be  a  Christian  with  the 
whole  family  arrayed  against  her — father,  mother,  broth- 
er, and  sister  making  her  the  target  of  ridicule.  That 
young  man  finds  it  hard  to  be  a  Christian  in  the  shop, 
or  factor}^,  or  store,  when  his  comrades  jeer  at  him  be- 
cause he  will  not  go  to  the  gambling-hell  or  the  house 


26i  THE  PROUD  RIDER   UNHORSED. 

of  shame.  Oh  no,  the  days  of  persecution  have  not 
ceased,  and  will  not  until  the  end  of  the  world.  But, 
oh !  you  persecuted  ones,  is  it  not  time  that  you  began 
to  pray  for  your  persecutors?  They  are  no  prouder,  no 
fiercer,  no  more  set  in  their  way  than  was  this  persecu- 
tor of  the  text.  He  fell.  They  will  fall,  if  Christ  from 
the  heavens  grandly  and  gloriously  look  out  on  them. 
God  can  by  his  grace  make  a  Renan  believe  in  the  di- 
vinity of  Jesus,  and  a  Tyndall  in  the  worth  of  prayer. 
Robert  Newton  stamped  the  ship's  deck  in  derisive  in- 
dignation at  Christianity  only  a  little  while  before  he 
became  a  Christian.  "Out  of  my  house,"  said  a  father 
to  his  daughter,  "if  you  will  keep  praying;"  yet  before 
many  months  passed,  the  father  knelt  at  the  same  altar 
with  the  child.  And  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  willing  to 
look  out  from  heaven  upon  that  derisive  opponent  of 
the  Christian  religion,  and  address  him  not  in  glittering 
generalities,  but  calling  him  by  name,  "John!  George! 
Henry ! — Saul !  Saul !  why  persecutest  thou  me  ?" 

Again,  I  learn  from  this  subject  that  there  is  hope  for 
the  worst  offenders.  It  was  particularly  outrageous  that 
Saul  should  have  gone  to  Damascus  on  that  errand. 
Jesus  Christ  had  been  dead  only  three  years,  and  the 
story  of  his  kindness  and  his  generosity  and  his  love 
filled  all  the  air.  It  was  not  an  old  story  as  it  is  now. 
It  was  a  new  story.  Jesus  had  only  three  summers  ago 
been  in  these  very  places,  and  Saul  every  day  in  Jerusa- 
lem must  have  met  people  who  knew  Christ,  people  with 
good  eyesight  whom  Jesus  had  cured  of  blindness,  people 
who  were  dead,  and  who  had  been  resurrected  by  the 
Saviour,  and  people  who  could  tell  Paul  all  the  particu- 
lars of  the  crucifixion — just  how  Jesus  looked  in  the  last 


THE  PROUD  RIDER   UNHORSED.  265 

hour — just  how  the  heavens  grew  black  in  the  face  at 
the  torture.  He  heard  that  recited  every  day  by  peo- 
ple who  were  acquainted  with  all  the  circumstances,  and 
yet  in  the  fresh  memory  of  that  scene  he  goes  to  perse- 
cute Christ's  disciples,  impatient  at  the  time  it  takes  to 
feed  the  horses  at  the  inn,  not  pulling  at  the  snafSe,  but 
riding  with  loose  rein  faster  and  faster.  Oh,  he  was  the 
chief  of  sinners.  No  outbreak  of  modesty  when  he  said 
that.  He  was  a  murderer.  He  stood  by  when  Stephen 
died,  and  helped  in  the  execution  of  that  good  man. 
When  the  rabble  wanted  to  be  unimpeded  in  their  work 
of  destroying  Stephen,  and  wanted  to  take  off  their  coats, 
but  did  not  dare  to  lay  them  down  lest  they  be  stolen, 
Paul  said,  "  I'll  take  care  of  the  coats,"  and  they  put 
them  down  at  the  feet  of  Paul,  and  he  watched  the 
coats,  and  he  watched  the  horrid  mangling  of  glorious 
Stephen.  Is  it  a  wonder  that  when  he  fell  from  the 
horse  he  did  not  break  his  neck — that  his  foot  did  not 
catch  somewhere  in  the  trappings  of  the  saddle,  and  he 
w^as  not  dragged  and  kicked  to  death  ?  He  deserved  to 
die  miserably,  wretchedly,  and  forever,  notwithstanding 
all  his  metaphysics,  and  his  eloquence,  and  his  logic. 
He  was  the  chief  of  sinners.  He  said  what  was  true 
when  he  said  that.  And  yet  the  grace  of  God  saved 
him,  and  so  it  will  you.  If  there  is  any  man  in  this 
house  who  thinks  he  is  too  bad  to  be  saved,  and  says, 
"I  have  wandered  very  grievously  from  God,  I  do  not 
believe  there  is  any  hope  for  me,"  I  tell  you  the  story  of 
this  man  in  the  text  who  was  brought  to  Jesus  Christ  in 
spite  of  his  sins  and  opposition.  There  may  be  some  here 
who  are  as  stoutly  opposed  to  Christ  as  Paul  was.  There 
may  be  some  here  who  are  captive  of  their  sins  as  much 


266  THE  PROUD  RIDER   UNHORSED. 

SO  as  the  young  man  who  said  in  regard  to  his  dissipa- 
ting habits,  "I  will  keep  on  with  them.  I  know  I  am 
breaking  my  mother's  heart,  and  I  know  I  am  killing 
myself,  and  I  know  that  when  I  die  I  shall  go  to  hell, 
but  it  is  now  too  late  to  stop." 

The  steed  on  which  you  ride  may  be  swifter,  and 
stronger,  and  higher -mettled  than  that  on  which  the 
Cilician  persecutor  rode,  but  Christ  can  catch  it  by  the 
bridle,  and  hurl  it  back  and  hurl  it  down.  There  is 
mercy  for  you  who  say  you  are  too  bad  to  be  saved. 
You  say  you  have  put  off  the  matter  so  long.  Paul  had 
neglected  it  a  great  while.  You  say  that  the  sin  you 
have  committed  has  been  amidst  the  most  aggravating 
circumstances.  That  was  so  with  Paul's.  You  say  you 
have  exasperated  Christ  and  coaxed  your  own  ruin.  So 
did  Paul.  And  yet  he  sits  to-day  on  one  of  the  highest 
of  the  heavenly  thrones ;  and  there  is  mercy  for  you, 
and  good  days  for  you,  and  gladness  for  you,  if  you  will 
only  take  the  same  Christ  which  first  threw  him  down 
and  then  raised  him  up.  It  seems  to  me  as  if  I  can  see 
Paul  to-day  rising  up  from  the  highway  to  Damascus 
and  brushing  off  the  dust  from  his  cloak  and  wiping  the 
sweat  of  excitement  from  his  brow,  as  he  turns  to  us  and 
all  the  ages,  saying,  "This  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  wor- 
thy of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the 
world  to  save  sinners,  ofivhom  I  am  chief P 

Once  more :  I  learn  from  this  subject  that  there  is  a 
tremendous  reality  in  religion.  If  it  had  been  a  mere  op- 
tical delusion  on  the  road  to  Damascus,  was  not  Paul 
just  the  man  to  find  it  out?  If  it  had  been  a  sham  and 
pretense,  would  he  not  have  pricked  the  bubble?  He 
was  a  man  of  facts  and  arguments,  of  the  most  gigantic 


TEE  PHOUB  lilDER   UNHORSED.  267 

intellectual  nature,  and  not  a  man  of  hallucinations. 
x\nd  when  I  see  him  fall  from  the  saddle,  blinded  and 
overwhelmed,  I  say  there  must  have  been  something  in  it. 
And,  my  dear  brother,  you  will  find  that  there  is  some- 
thing in  religion  in  one  of  three  places — either  in  earth, 
or  in  heaven,  or  in  hell.  We  will  wake  up  some- 
where, somehow,  sometime.  The  only  question  is,  where  ? 
There  was  a  man  who  rode  from  Stamford  to  London, 
ninety -five  miles  in  five  hours,  on  horseback.  Very 
swift.  There  was  a  woman  of  Newmarket  who  rode  on 
horseback  a  thousand  miles  in  a  thousand  hours.  Very 
swift.  But  there  are  those  here,  ay,  all  of  us  are  speed- 
ing on  at  tenfold  that  velocitj^,  at  a  thousand-fold  that 
rate,  toward  a  glad  or  a  wretched  eternity.  That  was  a 
fearful  fall  Paul  got;  but  Christ  raised  him  up.  Yet 
there  is  a  fall  from  which  there  will  be  no  rising.  That 
was  the  fall  the  man  got  who  in  his  last  moments  turned 
to  his  wife,  who,  by  her  worldliness,  had  kept  him  away 
from  Jesus,  and  said,  with  his  expiring  breath,  "Rebecca, 
you  are  the  cause  of  my  damnation !"  That  was  the 
fall  the  man  got  who  said,  in  his  last  moments,  "I  have 
sinned  away  my  day  of  grace.  Oh,  I  know  when  my 
day  of  grace  ended.  It  was  at  the  close  of  that  religious 
service."  That  was  the  fall  the  man  got  who  said,  "I 
am  dying  unprepared.  Great  God  !"  That  was  the  fall 
thousands  have  got.  They  perished  while  they  were 
speeding  on  in  their  career  of  sin  and  folly;  and  at  the 
moment  they  thought  they  were  most  firmly  seated  in 
the  stirrups,  and  the  girdle  most  firmly  buckled,  and  the 
domes  of  future  success  were  kindled  before  their  vision, 
they  were  suddenly  flung  into  shame  and  everlasting 
contempt.     May  Almighty  God,  from  the  opening  heav- 


268  THE  PROUD  RIDER   UNHORSED. 

ens,  flasli  upon  your  soul  this  day  the  question  of  your 
eternal  destiny,  and  oh  that  Jesus,  whom  you  have  mal- 
treated by  your  slights  and  your  neglects,  would  this  day 
overcome  you  with  his  pardoning  mercy,  as  he  stands 
here  with  the  pathos  of  a  broken  heart  and  sobs  into 
your  ear,  "  I  have  come  for  thee.  I  come  with  my  back 
raw  from  the  beating.  I  come  with  my  feet  mangled 
with  the  nails.  I  come  with  my  brow  aching  from  the 
twisted  bramble.  I  come  with  my  heart  bursting  for 
your  woes.  I  can  stand  it  no  longer.  /a7?2  Jesus  whom 
thou  persecutestJ^ 


THE  CHRISTIAN  NEEDLE-WOMAN,  269 


THE  CHKISTIAN"  NEEDLE -WOMAK 

"Now  there  was  at  Joppa  a  certain  disciple  named  Tabitha,  which  by 
interpretation  is  called  Dorcas." — Acts  ix.,  36. 

THEEE  is  in  Joppa,  a  sea-port  town,  a  woman  with 
her  needle  embroidering  her  name  ineffaceablj  into 
the  charities  of  the  world.  I  see  her  sitting  in  the  vil- 
lage home.  In  the  door- way  and  around  about  the  build- 
ing, and  in  the  room  where  she  sits,  are  the  pale  faces  of 
the  poor.  She  listens  to  their  plaint,  she  pities  their  woe, 
she  maJ^es  garments  for  them,  she  adjusts  the  manufac- 
tured articles  to  suit  the  bent  form  of  this  invalid  wom- 
an, and  to  the  cripple  that  comes  crawling  on  his  hands 
and  knees.  She  gives  a  coat  to  this  one,  she  gives  san- 
dals to  that  one.  With  the  gifts  she  mingles  prayers 
and  tears  and  Christian  encouragement.  Then  she  goes 
out  to  be  greeted  on  the  street  corners  by  those  whom 
she  has  blessed,  and  all  through  the  street  the  cry  comes, 
"Dorcas  is  coming!"  The  sick  look  up  gratefully  in 
her  face  as  she  puts  her  hand  on  the  burning  brow,  and 
the  lost  and  the  abandoned  start  up  with  hope  as  they 
hear  her  gentle  voice,  as  though  an  angel  had  addressed 
them :  and  as  she  goes  out  the  lane,  eyes  half  put  out 
with  sin  think  they  see  a  halo  of  light  about  her  brow, 
and  a  trail  of  glory  in  her  pathway.  That  night  a  half- 
paid  shipwright  climbs  the  hill  and  reaches  home,  and 
sees  his  little  boy  well  clad,  and  says,  "Where  did  these 
clothes  come  from?"     And  they  tell  him,  "Dorcas  has 


270  THE  CHRIHTIAN  NEEDLE -WOMAN. 

been  here."  In  another  place  a  woman  is  trimming  a 
lamp ;  Dorcas  brought  the  oil.  In  another  place,  a  fixm- 
ily  that  had  not  been  at  table  for  many  a  week  are  gath- 
ered now,  for  Dorcas  has  brought  bread. 

But  there  is  a  sudden  pause  in  that  woman's  ministry. 
They  say,  "Where  is  Dorcas?  Why,  we  haven't  seen 
her  for  many  a  day.  Where  is  Dorcas?"  And  one  of 
these  poor  people  goes  up  and  knocks  at  the  door  and 
finds  the  mystery  solved.  All  through  the  haunts  of 
wretchedness  the  news  comes,  "Dorcas  is  sick!"  Ko 
bulletin  flashing  from  the  palace  gate,  telling  the  stages 
of  a  king's  disease,  is  more  anxiously  awaited  for  than 
the  news  from  this  sick  beneflictress.  Alas  for  Joppa! 
there  is  wailing,  wailing.  That  voice  which  has  uttered 
so  many  cheerful  words  is  hushed ;  that  hand  which  had 
made  so  many  garments  for  the  poor  is  cold  and  still; 
that  star  which  had  poured  light  into  the  midnight  of 
wretchedness  is  dimmed  by  the  blinding  mists  that  go 
up  from  the  river  of  death.  In  every  God -forsaken 
place  in  that  town ;  wherever  there  is  a  sick  child  and 
no  balm;  wherever  there  is  hunger  and  no  bread;  wher- 
ever there  is  guilt  and  no  commiseration  ;  wherever  there 
is  a  broken  heart  and  no  comfort,  there  are  despairing 
looks,  and  streaming  eyes,  and  frantic  gesticulations  as 
they  cry,  "  Dorcas  is  dead !"  They  send  for  the  apostle 
Peter.  He  urges  his  way  through  the  crowd  around  the 
door,  and  stands  in  the  presence  of  the  dead.  What  ex- 
postulation and  grief  all  about  him !  Here  stand  some 
of  the  poor  people,  who  show  the  garments  which  this 
poor  woman  had  made  for  them.  Their  grief  can  not 
be  appeased.  The  Apostle  Peter  wants  to  perform  a 
miracle.     He  will  not  do  it  amidst  the  excited  crowd, 


THE  CHRISTIAX  NEEDLE -WOMAX.  271 

SO  he  kindly  orders  that  the  whole  room  be  cleared. 
The  door  is  shut  against  the  populace.  The  apostle 
stands  now  with  the  dead.  Oh,  it  is  a  serious  moment, 
you  know,  when  you  are  alone  with  a  lifeless  body !  The 
apostle  gets  down  on  his  knees  and  prays,  and  then  he 
comes  to  the  lifeless  form  of  this  one  all  ready  for  the 
sepulchre,  and  in  the  strength  of  him  who  is  the  resur- 
rection, he  exclaims,  "  Tahitha^  arise  /"  There  is  a  stir  in 
the  fountains  of  life ;  the  heart  flutters ;  the  nerves  thrill ; 
the  cheek  flushes;  the  eye  opens;  she  sits  up ! 

We  see  in  this  subject  Dorcas  the  disciple;  Dorcas 
the  benefactress ;  Dorcas  the  lamented ;  Dorcas  the  res- 
urrected. 

If  I  had  not  seen  that  word  disciple  in  my  text,  I 
would  have  known  this  woman  was  a  Christian.  Such 
music  as  that  never  came  from  a  heart  which  is  not 
chorded  and  strung  by  Divine  grace.  Before  I  show 
you  the  needle-work  of  this  woman,  I  want  to  show  you 
her  regenerated  heart,  the  source  of  a  pure  life  and  of  all 
Christian  charities.  I  wish  that  the  wives  and  mothers 
and  daughters  and  sisters  of  this  congregation  would  im- 
itate Dorcas  in  her  discipleship.  Before  you  sit  with  the 
Sabbath -class,  before  you  cross  the  threshold  of  the  hos- 
pital, before  you  carry  a  pack  of  tracts  down  the  street, 
before  you  enter  upon  the  temptations  and  trials  of  to- 
morrow, I  charge  yon,  in  the  name  of  God,  and  by  the 
turmoil  and  tumult  of  the  Judgment-day,  oh  women ! 
that  you  attend  to  the  first,  last,  and  greatest  duty  of 
your  life — the  seeking  for  Grod  and  being  at  peace  with 
him.  Now,  by  the  courtesies  of  society,  you  are  de- 
ferred to,  and  he  were  less  than  a  man  who  would  not 
oblige  you  with  kind  attentions;  but  when  the  trumpet 

12 


272  THE  CHRISTIAN  NEEDLE -WOMAN. 

shall  sound,  there  will  be  an  uproar,  and  a  wreck  of 
mountain  and  continent,  and  no  human  arm  can  help 
you.  Amidst  the  rising  of  the  dead,  and  amidst  the 
boiling  of  the  sea,  and  amidst  the  live,  leaping  thunders 
of  the  flying  heavens,  there  will  be  no  chance  for  court- 
esies. But  on  that  day,  calm  and  placid  will  be  every 
woman's  heart  who  hath  put  her  trust  in  Christ;  calm 
notwithstanding  all  the  tumult,  as  though  the  fire  in  the 
heavens  were  only  the  gildings  of  an  autumnal  sunset, 
as  though  the  peal  of  the  trumpet  were  only  the  har- 
mony of  an  orchestra,  as  though  the  awful  voices  of  the 
sky  were  but  a  group  of  friends  bursting  through  a  gate- 
way at  eventime  with  laughter,  and  shouting  "Dorcas 
the  disciple!"  Would  God  that  every  Mary  and  every 
Martha  would  this  day  sit  down  at  the  feet  of  Jesus! 

Further,  we  see  Dorcas  the  benefactress.  History  has 
told  the  story  of  the  crown ;  the  epic  poet  has  sung  of 
the  sword ;  the  pastoral  poet,  with  his  verses  full  of  the 
redolence  of  clover-tops,  and  a-rustle  with  the  silk  of  the 
corn,  has  sung  the  praises  of  the  plow.  I  tell  you  the 
praises  of  the  needle.  From  the  fig-leaf  robe  prepared 
in  the  garden  of  Eden  to  the  last  stitch  taken  last  night 
on  the  garment  for  the  Tabernacle  fair,  the  needle  has 
wrought  wonders  of  kindness,  generosit}^,  and  benefac- 
tion. It  adorned  the  girdle  of  the  high-priest;  it  fash- 
ioned the  curtains  in  the  ancient  tabernacle ;  it  cushioned 
the  chariots  of  King  Solomon ;  it  provided  the  robes  of 
Queen  Elizabeth  ;  and  in  high  places  and  in  low  places, 
by  the  fire  of  the  pioneer's  back-log  and  under  the  flash 
of  the  chandelier,  everywhere,  it  has  clothed  nakedness, 
it  has  preached  the  Gospel,  it  has  overcome  hosts  of  pen- 
ury and  want  with  the  war-cry  of  "Stitch,  stitch,  stitch  !" 


THE  CHRISTIAN  NEEDLE-WOMAN.  273 

The  operatives  have  found  a  livelihood  by  it,  and 
through  it  the  mansions  of  the  employer  have  been  con- 
structed. Amidst  the  greatest  triumphs  in  all  ages  and 
lands,  I  set  down  the  conquests  of  the  needle.  I  admit 
its  crimes:  I  admit  its  cruelties.  It  has  had  more  mar- 
tyrs than  the  fire ;  it  has  butchered  more  souls  than  the 
Inquisition  ;  it  has  punctured  the  eye ;  it  has  pierced  the 
side;  it  has  struck  weakness  into  the  lungs;  it  has  sent 
madness  into  the  brain;  it  has  filled  the  potter's  field; 
it  has  pitched  whole  armies  of  the  suffering  into  crime 
and  wretchedness  and  woe.  But  now  that  I  am  talking 
of  Dorcas  and  her  ministeries  to  the  poor,  I  shall  speak 
only  of  the  charities  of  the  needle. 

This  woman  was  a  representative  of  all  those  women 
who  make  garments  for  the  destitute,  who  knit  socks  for 
the  barefooted,  who  prepare  bandages  for  the  lacerated, 
who  fix  up  boxes  of  clothing  for  Western  missionaries, 
who  go  into  the  asylums  of  the  suffering  and  destitute 
bearing  that  Gospel  which  is  sight  for  the  blind,  and 
hearing  for  the  deaf,  and  which  makes  the  lame  man 
leap  like  a  hart,  and  brings  the  dead  to  life,  immortal 
health  bounding  in  their  pulses.  What  a  contrast  be- 
tween the  practical  benevolence  of  this  woman  and  a 
great  deal  of  the  charity  of  this  day  !  This  woman  did 
not  spend  her  time  idly  planning  how  the  poor  of  Jop- 
pa  were  to  be  relieved ;  she  took  her  needle  and  re- 
lieved them.  She  was  not  like  those  persons  who  sym- 
pathize with  imaginary  sorrows,  and  go  out  in  the  street 
and  laugh  at  the  boy  who  has  upset  his  basket  of  cold 
victuals,  or  like  that  charity  which  makes  a  rousing 
speech  on  the  benevolent  platform,  and  goes  out  to  kick 
the  beggar  from  the  step,  crying,  "  Hush  your  miserable 


274  THE  CHRISTIAN  NEEDLE -WOMAK 

howling!"  The  sufferers  of  the  world  want  not  so  much 
theory  as  practice;  not  so  much  tears  as  dollars;  not 
so  much  kind  wishes  as  loaves  of  bread ;  not  bo  much 
smiles  as  shoes;  not  so  much  "God  bless  yons  1"  as 
jackets  and  frocks.  I  will  put  one  earnest  Christian 
man,  hard  working,  against  five  thousand  mere  theorists 
on  the  subject  of  charity.  There  are  a  great  many  who 
have  fine  ideas  about  church  architecture  w^ho  never  in 
their  life  helped  to  build  a  church.  There  are  men  who 
can  give  you  the  history  of  Buddhism  and  Mohammed- 
anism, who  never  sent  a  farthing  for  their  evangeliza- 
tion. There  are  women  who  talk  beautifully  about  the 
suffering  of  the  world,  who  never  had  the  courage  like 
Dorcas  to  take  the  needle  and  assault  it. 

I  am  glad  that  there  is  not  a  page  of  the  world's  his- 
tory which  is  not  a  record  of  female  benevolence.  God 
says  to  all  lands  and  people,  come  now  and  hear  the 
widow's  mite  rattle  down  into  the  poor-box.  The  Prin- 
cess of  Conti  sold  all  her  jewels  that  she  might  help 
the  famine-stricken.  Queen  Blanche,  the  wife  of  Louis 
VIII.  of  France,  hearing  that  there  were  some  persons 
unjustly  incarcerated  in  the  prisons,  went  out  amidst  the 
rabble  and  took  a  stick  and  struck  the  door  as  a  signal 
that  they  might  all  strike  it,  and  down  went  the  prison 
door,  and  out  came  the  prisoners.  Queen  Maud,  the 
wnfe  of  Henry  I.,  went  down  amidst  the  poor  and  wash- 
ed their  sores,  and  administered  to  them  cordials.  Mrs. 
Eetson,  at  Matagorda,  appeared  on  the  battle-field  while 
the  missiles  of  death  were  flying  around,  and  cared  for 
the  wounded.  But  why  go  so  far  back?  Why  go  so 
far  away?  Is  there  a  man  or  woman  in  this  house  who 
has  forgotten  the  women  of  the  Sanitary  and  Christian 


THE  CHRISTIAN  NEEDLE -WOMAN.  275 

Commissions,  or  the  fact  that,  before  the  smoke  had  gone 
up  from  Gettysburg  and  South  Mountain,  the  women  of 
the  North  met  the  women  of  the  South  on  the  battle- 
field, forgetting  all  their  animosities  while  they  bound 
up  the  wounded,  and  closed  the  eyes  of  the  slain?  Have  »  • 
you  forgotten  ?     Dorcas  the  benefactress ! 

I  come  now  to  speak  of  Dorcas  the  lamented.  When 
death  struck  down  that  good  woman,  oh,  how  much  sor- 
row there  was  in  Joppa !  I  suppose  there  were  women 
there  with  larger  fortunes ;  women,  perhaps,  with  hand- 
somer faces;  but  there  was  no  grief  at  their  departure 
like  this  at  the  death  of  Dorcas.  There  w^as  not  more 
turmoil  and  upturning  in  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  dashing 
against  the  wharves  of  that  sea-port,  than  there  were 
surgings  to  and  fro  of  grief  in  Joppa  because  Dorcas  was 
dead.  There  are  a  great  many  w^ho  go  out  of  life  and 
are  unmissed.  There  may  be  a  very  large  funeral ; 
there  may  be  a  great  many  carriages  and  a  plumed 
hearse;  there  may  be  high-sounding  eulogiums;  the  bell 
may  toll  at  the  cemetery  gate ;  there  may  be  a  very  fine 
marble  shaft  reared  over  the  resting-place  5  but  the  whole 
thing  may  be  a  falsehood  and  a  sham.  The  Church  of 
God  has  lost  nothing,  the  world  has  lost  nothing.  It  is 
only  a  nuisance  abated ;  it  is  only  a  grumbler  ceasing  to 
find  fault;  it  is  only  an  idler  stopped  yawning;  it  is  only 
a  dissipated  fashionable  parted  from  his  wine-cellar; 
w4iile,  on  the  other  hand,  no  useful  Christian  leaves  this 
world  without  being  missed.  The  Church  of  God  cries 
out  like  the  prophet:  "Howl,  fir-tree,  for  the  cedar  has 
fallen."  Widowhood  comes  and  shows  the  garments 
which  the  departed  had  made.  Orphans  are  lifted  up 
to  look  into  the  calm  face  of  the  sleeping  benefactress. 


276  THE  CHRISTIAN  NEEDLE -WOMAK 

Reclaimed  vagrancy  comes  and  kisses  the  cold  brow  of 
her  who  charmed  it  away  from  sin,  and  all  through  the 
streets  of  Joppa  there  is  mourning — mourning  because 
Dorcas  is  dead. 

I  suppose  you  have  read  of  the  fact  that  when  Jose- 
phine was  carried  out  to  her  grave  there  were  a  great 
many  men  and  women  of  pomp  and  pride  and  position 
that  went  out  after  her ;  but  I  am  most  affected  by  the 
story  of  history  that  on  that  day  there  were  ten  thousand 
of  the  poor  of  France  who  followed  her  coffin,  weeping 
and  wailing  until  the  air  rang  again,  because,  when  they 
lost  Josephine,  they  lost  their  last  earthly  friend.  Oh, 
who  would  not  rather  have  such  obsequies  than  all  the 
tears  that  were  ever  poured  in  the  lachrymals  that  have 
been  exhumed  from  ancient  cities.  There  may  be  no 
mass  for  the  dead;  there  may  be  no  costly  sarcophagus; 
there  may  be  no  elaborate  mausoleum ;  but  in  the  damp 
cellars  of  the  city,  and  through  the  lonely  huts  of  the 
mountain  glen,  there  will  be  mourning,  mourning,  mourn- 
ing, because  Dorcas  is  dead.  "  Blessed  are  the  dead  who 
die  in  the  Lord ;  they  rest  from  their  labors,  and  their 
works  do  follow  them." 

I  speak  to  you  of  Dorcas  the  resurrected.  The  apostle 
came  to  where  she  was,  and  said,  "Arise;  and  she  sat  up." 
In  what  a  short  compass  the  great  writer  put  that — "  She 
sat  up!"  Oh,  what  a  time  there  must  have  been  when 
the  apostle  brought  her  out  among  her  old  friends! 
How  the  tears  of  joy  must  have  started !  What  clapping 
of  hands  there  must  have  been!  "What  singing!  what 
laughter!  Sound  it  all  through  that  lane!  Shout  it 
down  that  dark  alley!  Let  all  Joppa  hear  it!  Dorcas 
is  resurrected ! 


THE  CHRISTIAN  NEEDLE -WOMAN.  277 

You  and  I  have  seen  the  same  thing  many  a  time; 
not  a  dead  body  resuscitated,  but  the  deceased  coming  up 
again  after  death  in  the  good  accomplished.  If  a  man 
labors  up  to  fifty  years  of  age,  serving  God,  and  then 
dies,  we  are  apt  to  think  that  his  earthly  work  is  done. 
No!  His  influence  on  earth  will  continue  till  the  world 
ceases.  Services  rendered  for  Christ  never  stop.  Here 
is  a  Christian  woman.  She  toils  for  the  upbuilding  of  a 
church  through  many  anxieties,  through  many  self-deni- 
als, with  prayers  and  tears,  and  then  she  dies.  It  is  fif- 
teen years  since  she  went  away.  Now  the  Spirit  of  God 
descends  upon  that  church ;  hundreds  of  souls  stand  up 
and  confess  the  faith  of  Christ.  Has  that  Christian  wom- 
an, who  went  away  fifteen  years  ago,  nothing  to  do  with 
these  things?  I  see  the  flowering  out  of  her  noble  heart. 
I  hear  the  echo  of  her  footsteps  in  all  these  songs  over 
sins  forgiven,  in  all  the  prosperity  of  the  church.  The 
good  that  seemed  to  be  buried  has  come  up  again.  Dor- 
cas is  resurrected. 

After  a  w^hile  all  these  womanly  friends  of  Christ  will 
put  down  their  needle  forever.  After  making  garments 
for  others, some  one  will  make  a  garment  for  them:  the 
last  robe  we  ever  wear — the  robe  for  the  grave.  You 
will  have  heard  the  last  cry  of  pain.  You  will  have  wit- 
nessed the  last  orphanage.  You  will  have  come  in  worn 
out  from  your  last  I'ound  of  mercy.  I  do  not  know 
where  you  will  sleep,  nor  what  your  epitaph  will  be ;  but 
there  will  be  a  lamp  burning  at  that  tomb  and  an  angel 
of  God  guarding  it,  and  through  all  the  long  night  no 
rude  foot  will  disturb  the  dust.  Sleep  on,  sleep  on! 
Soft  bed,  pleasant  shadows,  undisturbed  repose !  Sleep 
on! 


278  THE  CHRISTIAN  NEEDLE -WOMAN. 

"  Asleep  in  Jesus  !     Blessed  sleep  ! 
From  which  none  ever  wake  to  weep." 

Then  one  day  there  will  be  a  sky-rending,  and  a  whirl 
of  wheels,  and  the  flash  of  a  pageant;  armies  marching, 
chains  clanking,  banners  waving,  thunders  booming,  and 
that  Christian  woman  will  arise  from  the  dust,  and  she 
will  be  suddenly  surrounded — surrounded  by  the  wan- 
derers of  the  street  whom  she  reclaimed,  surrounded  by 
the  wounded  souls  to  whom  she  administered !  Daughter 
of  God,  so  strangely  surrounded,  what  means  this?  It 
means  that  reward  has  come,  that  the  victory  is  won,  that 
the  crown  is  ready,  that  the  banquet  is  spread.  Shout  it 
through  all  the  crumbling  earth.  Sing  it  through  all  the 
flying  heavens.     Dorcas  is  resurrected  I 

In  1855,  when  some  of  the  soldiers  came  back  from  the 
Crimean  war  to  London,  the  Queen  of  England  distributed 
among  them  beautiful  medals,  called  Crimean  medals.  I 
think  of  it  just  now,  as  I  recently  had  a  book  presented 
me  representing  that  beautiful  Crimean  medal.  Galleries 
were  erected  for  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  and  the 
royal  family  to  sit  in.  There  was  a  great  audience  to 
witness  the  distribution  of  the  medals.  A  colonel  who 
had  lost  both  feet  in  the  battle  of  Inkermann  was  pulled 
in  on  a  wheel -chair;  others  came  in  limping  on  their 
crutches.  Then  the  Queen  of  England  arose  ' -efore  them 
in  the  name  of  her  Government,  and  uttered  words  of 
commendation  to  the  officers  and  the  men,  and  distributed 
these  medals,  inscribed  with  the  four  great  battle-fields, 
Alma,  Balaklava,  Inkermann,  and  Sebastopol.  As  the 
Queen  gave  these  to  the  wounded  men  and  the  wounded 
officers,  the  bands  of  music  struck  up  the  national  air,  and 
the  people  with  streaming  eyes  joined  in  the  song: 


THE  CHRISTIAN  NEEDLE -WOMAN.  279 

"  God  save  our  noble  Queen  ! 
Long  live  our  gracious  Queen ! 
God  save  the  Queen  !'' 

And  then  they  shouted,  "  Huzza !  huzza!"  Oh,  it  was  a 
proud  day  for  those  returned  warriors!  But  a  brighter, 
better,  and  gladder  day  will  come,  when  Christ  shall  gath- 
er those  who  have  toiled  in  his  service,  good  soldiers  of 
Jesus  Christ.  He  shall  rise  before  them,  and  in  the  pres- 
ence of  all  the  glorified  of  heaven  he  will  say,  "  Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant!"  and  then  he  will  dis- 
tribute the  medals  of  eternal  victory,  not  inscribed  with 
works  of  righteousness  which  we  have  done,  but  with 
those  four  great  battle-fields,  dear  to  earth  and  dear  to 
hesiV en ^  Bethlehem  /  Nazareth/  Oethsemane  I  Calvary! 

12* 


280  EOEACE  QBEELET,  LIVING  AND  DEAD. 


HORACE  GREELEY,  LIVING  AND  DEAD. 

"Howl,  fir-tree,  for  the  cedar  is  fallen." — Zechariah  xi.,  2. 

WHEN  the  smaller  growths  of  the  forest  topple,  there 
is  bat  little  excitement  in  the  wood.  The  stork 
does  not  so  much  as  flutter  a  wing,  nor  does  the  hart  lift 
it's  mouth  dripping  from  the  w^ater-brooks.  But  when 
a  cedar  that  has  been  standing  for  ages,  the  glory  of  the 
forest,  touched  with  decay,  or  under  the  swoop  of  the 
hurricane  begins  to  weigh  its  anchorage  of  root,  and  falls, 
the  crash  startles  the  eagle  from  its  aerie,  and  sends  the 
stag  in  wild  plunge  from  the  rock,  and  shakes  the  very 
foundation  of  the  mountains. 

A  few  hours  ago  a  black  and  swarthy  axeman  went 
into  the  forests  of  men.  He  had  hewn  down  many  a  tall 
and  gigantic  growth :  he  has  been  swinging  his  axe  for 
six  thousand  years,  and  he  knows  how  to  cut.  He  aimed 
the  sharp  and  fatal  edge  at  one  whom  we  all  knew — 
stroke  after  stroke,  stroke  after  stroke,  until  the  cedar 
which  had  stood  the  blasts  of  trouble  and  trial,  and  abuse 
and  toil,  drops  into  the  dust,  two  hemispheres  resounding 
with  the  fall.     "  Howl,  fir-tree,  for  the  cedar  is  fallen !" 

Horace  Greeley  is  dead !  and  the  caricaturist  drops  his 
pencil,  the  author  his  pen,  the  merchant  his  j^ard-stick, 
the  laborer  his  pickaxe,  the  child  its  toy,  and  the  world 
its  eulogium.  Taking  it  all  in  all,  I  think  it  is  the  sad- 
dest death  of  any  public  man  in  our  whole  history.     Let 


HORACE  GREELEY,  LIVIXG  AND  DEAD.  281 

neither  pen  nor  tongue,  by  useless  review  or  unbrotherly 
criticism,  add  one  drop  to  the  nation's  cup  of  grief ;  it  is 
brimful  already.  Be  it  ours  the  Christian  duty  of  learn- 
ing the  lessons  of  this  man,  living  and  dead. 

I  think  the  life  of  this  man  ought  to  kindle  hope  and 
enthusiasm  in  all  the  struggling.  There  are  a  great  many 
young  men  who  tell  me  that  they  have  no  chance.  They 
say,  "Yonder  is  a  young  man  who  started  with  a  large 
fortune,  and  here  is  a  young  man  who  married  a  fine 
estate,  and  here  is  another  who  has  been  through  our  best 
universities,  and  has  finished  his  education  in  Edinburgh 
or  Germany ;  but  I  have  no  education,  I  have  no  money, 
I  have  no  chance."  You  have  as  good  a  chance  as  Hor- 
ace Greeley  the  hoy.  See  him  in  Vermont,  in  home- 
spun, dyed  with  butternut-bark,  helping  his  father  get  a 
living  for  the  family  out  of  very  poor  soil.  I  tell  you 
that  one  who  has,  with  bare  feet  and  in  tow  shirt,  helped 
a  father  to  get  out  of  poor  soil  a  living  for  mother  and 
sisters,  has  a  right  to  publish  fifty  books  concerning 
"What  he  knows  about  farming."  See  the  lad  stepping 
np  from  the  Albany  boat  on  the  New  York  Battery,  and 
then  coming  and  sitting  down  on  the  steps  of  a  printing- 
house,  waiting  for  the  boss  to  come  in  the  morning.  Then 
look  at  him  sitting  in  the  foremost  editorial  chair  of  all 
the  world,  and  then  tell  me  again  you  have  no  chance. 
If  a  young  man  starts  from  a  good,  honest,  industrious 
Christian  mother,  he  graduates  from  a  universit}^  better 
than  that  of  Berlin  or  Edinburgh,  with  a  diploma  in  each 
hand.  Every  sound  man  staits  life  with  a  capital  of  at 
least  one  hundred  thousand  dollars — I  say  every  man. 
You  tell  me  to  prove  it.  I  will  prove  it.  Your  right 
arm — will  you  take  five  thousand  dollars,  and  have  it 


282  HORACE  OREELEY,  LIVING  AND  DEAD. 

cut  off?  "No,"  you  say.  Then  certainly  it  is  worth 
five  thousand  dollars,  and  your  left  arm  is  worth  as  much, 
and  your  right  foot  as  much,  and  your  left  foot  as  much. 
Twenty  thousand  dollars  of  capital  to  start  with.  Your 
mind ;  for  how  much  would  you  go  up  and  spend  your 
life  in  Bloomingdale  Asylum?  Twenty  thousand  dollars 
for  your  intellect?  You  would  refuse  it.  It  is  worth 
that,  anyhow  —  forty  thousand  dollars  of  equipment. 
Then  you  have  an  immortal  soul ;  for  how  much  would 
you  sell  it?  For  sixty  thousand  dollars  ?  No!  you  say, 
with  indignation.  Then  certainly  it  is  worth  that  much. 
And  there  are  your  one  hundred  thousand  dollars — the 
magnificent  outfit  with  which  the  Lord  God  Almighty 
started  every  one  of  you.  And  yet  there  are  young  men 
who  are  waiting  for  others  to  come  and  start  them — to 
make  them ;  waiting  for  institutions  to  make  them  ;  wait- 
ing for  circumstances  to  make  them.  Fool !  go  and  make 
yourself  Columbus  was  a  weaver;  Halley  a  soap-boiler; 
Arkwright  a  barber ;  ^sop  a  slave ;  the  learned  Bloom- 
field  was  a  shoe -maker;  Hogarth  was  an  engraver  of 
pewter-plate ;  Sixtus  Y.  was  a  swine-herdsman ;  Homer 
was  a  beggar;  and  Horace  Greeley  started  life  in  New 
York  with  ten  dollars  and  seventy-five  cents  in  his  pock- 
et, as  well  off  as  if  he  had  the  eleven  full  round  dollars. 
But  there  are  a  great  many  young  men  who  are  waiting 
for  the  other  twenty-five  cents  before  they  begin.  "  Oh !" 
you  say,  "  it  was  his  eccentricities  that  got  him  success." 
A  great  many  men  have  supposed  that,  and  they  have 
aped  him,  and  they  got  so  far  as  the  bad  penmanship  and 
the  slouched  hat,  but  they  never  got  to  be  Horace  Gree- 
leys.  So  it  was  in  the  days  of  Lord  Byron.  Excessive- 
ly admired  he  was,  and  there  were  many  people  in  En- 


HORACE  GREELEY,  LIVING  AND  DEAD.  283 

gland  who  resolved  that  they  would  be  Lord  Byrons, 
and  they  got  to  be,  so  far  as  a  very  large  shirt-collar  went, 
but  no  nearer.  It  was  not  eccentricity  that  made  Horace 
Greeley;  it  was  hard  work.  Proverbs  xxii.,  29 :  "Seest 
thou  a  man  diligent  in  his  business  ?  he  shall  stand  be- 
fore kings." 

Again,  my  friends,  there  comes  from  this  providence 
a  luaming  for  all  hrain-ivorkers.  Mr.  Greeley,  at  my  own 
table,  ten  days  before  his  nomination  at  Cincinnati,  told 
me  that  he  had  not  had  a  sound  sleep  in  fifteen  years! 
I  said  to  him,  "Why  do  you  sit  in  your  room  writing, 
with  your  hand  up  at  that  elevation,  on  a  board  raised 
to  that  point  ?"  "  Well,"  he  said,  "  I  have  so  much  work 
to  do  that  I  must  not  have  my  chest  cramped  at  all.  I 
must  keep  all  my  faculties  of  body  and  mind  in  full 
play,  or  I  can  not  get  on."  During  the  late  war,  in  con- 
nection with  his  editorial  duty,  almost  every  evening 
you  might  have  seen  him  on  the  rail-car  going  out  to 
meet  a  lecturing  engagement.  He  was  writing  articles 
for  other  journals  besides  his  own.  He  was  preparing  a 
history  of  the  war,  which  history  might  have  taken  the 
exclusive  time  of  any  other  man  for  two  or  three  years. 
And  now  people  say  it  is  political  disappointment  that 
killed  him.  I  do  not  believe  it,  unless  it  is  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  it  is  the  last  straw  that  breaks  the  camel's 
back.  A  man  with  his  magnificent  cerebral  develop- 
ment would  not  have  been  overthrown  in  that  way;  it 
was  because  for  twenty  years  he  had  been  giving  the 
death-blow  with  his  own  pen  —  extreme  work,  work 
which  he  did  conscientiously,  but  it  was  overwork. 
Work  is  good,  as  I  said  in  the  former  head  of  my  dis- 
course; but  too  much  work  is  death. 


28-i  HORACE  GREELEY,  LIVING  AND  DEAD. 

Now,  brethren  of  literary  toil,  you  had  better  hold  up. 
If  you  are  going  at  the  rate  of  sixty  miles  an  hour,  you 
had  better  stop  and  go  no  more  than  thirty.  The  temp- 
tations to  overwork  for  literary  men  are  multiplying  all 
the  time  in  increased  newspapers  and  magazines,  and 
lecturing  platforms.  The  temptation  to  night -work  is 
especially  great — that  kind  of  work  which  is  most  ex- 
hausting and  ruinous.  "When  the  sun  goes  down,  God 
puts  his  candle  out,  and  says  to  the  world,  "My  child, 
you  had  better  go  to  sleep ;  I  have  put  the  candle  out." 
The  brass-headed  nails  of  coffins  are  made  out  of  gas- 
light! The  money  that  a  man  makes  by  midnight  toil 
he  pays  toward  the  expenses  of  his  own  funeral.  When 
the  devil  can  not  stop  a  good  man's  work  by  making 
him  lazy,  then  he  comes  into  the  editor's  room,  or  into 
the  minister's  study,  or  into  the  artist's  studio,  and  he 
says,  "Go  it!  you  ought  to  be  doing  five  times  the  work 
you  are  doing.  You  ought  to  write  two  books  this  year. 
You  ought  to  send  out  twenty  or  thirty  additional  arti- 
cles. You  ought  to  deliver  fifty  lectures  at  two  hun- 
dred dollars  a  night."  Then,  when  his  health  fails,  there 
is  Satanic  congratulation.  The  devil  first  tries  to  stop  a 
useful  man  by  making  him  lazy.  Failing  in  that,  he 
then  puts  on  the  lash  and  digs  in  the  spurs,  and  drives 
him  to  death.  I  say,  therefore,  to  the  men  who  are  toil- 
ing with  their  brain,  you  had  better  "slow  up,"  as  they 
say  on  the  railroad  lines.  I  hear  somebody  say,  "You 
had  better  take  your  own  advice."  I  will.  I  am  being 
converted  under  my  own  sermon.  God  gives  to  every 
man  a  certain  amount  of  work,  and  he  does  not  want 
him  to  do  any  more  than  that.  "Do  thyself  no  harm," 
is  advice  no  more  appropriate  to  the  jailer  when  the 


HORACE  GREELEY,  LIVING  AJiD  LEAD.  285 

prison  is  tumbling  around  his  ears,  than  it  is  appropri- 
ate to  those  the  wards  of  whose  health  and  the  fastnesses 
of  whose  strength  begin  to  tremble  with  the  earthquake. 
Paul  was  very  careful  of  his  body;  long  before  the  days 
of  expressage  he  sends  hundreds  of  miles  for  his  great- 
coat to  Troas.  Oh,  ye  men  of  literary  toil !  you  have 
been  careful  about  keeping  the  candle  snuffed  and  burn- 
ing brightly;  is  it  not  almost  time  you  began  to  look  af- 
ter the  candlestick?  The  sharp  sword  will  not  make  any 
execution  unless  you  have  a  handle  to  it.  Through  all 
the  editorial  rooms,  and  through  all  the  studies  of  this 
country,  let  the  warning  reverberate ;  let  it  come  up  to- 
night from  the  graves  of  Kirke  White,  of  Henry  J.  Eay- 
mond,  and  of  Horace  Greeley. 

Again,  I  have  found  since  this  calamity  came  to  the 
nation,  the  great  laiu  of  brotherhood  illustrated.  Have  you 
not  been  surprised  to  see  how  every  heart  thrilled  in  sym- 
pathy with  this  trial  ?  Take  this  in  consideration  of  the 
fact  that  we  are  now  at  the  close  of  the  meanest  and  most 
dastardly  chapter  of  personality,  and  vituperation,  and 
scorn,  and  political  calumny  that  has  ever  been  written. 
It  is  most  marvelous.  If  there  is  any  word  expressive 
of  contempt,  and  of  hatred,  and  of  disgust,  and  of  defa- 
mation that  has  not  been  used  within  the  past  six  months, 
it  is  because  the  dictionaries  have  made  the  word  obso- 
lete. Why,  the  cylinders  of  the  printing-presses  have 
hardly  cooled  off  from  the  fiery  assault.  But  the  very 
moment  this  death  is  announced,  how  every  thing  is 
hushed!  And  next  Wednesday,  when  the  nation  fol- 
lows Horace  Greeley  to  his  grave,  in  the  vast  procession 
you  will  not  be  able  to  tell  who  were  Republicans  and 
who  were  Liberal  Republicans.     All  the  States  will  vote 


286  HORACE  QREELEY,  LIVING  AND  LEAD. 

for  him  now,  and  by  the  electoral  college  of  the  whole 
world  he  will  be  proclaimed,  unanimously,  President  of 
the  great  reformatory  movements  of  the  last  twenty 
years.  Oh,  how  quickly  the  nation  grounded  arms !  how 
quickly  the  sword  clanked  back  into  the  scabbard !  The 
drums  that  were  beating  the  victory  of  his  political  op- 
ponent deepen  now  into  the  grand  march  for  the  dead ! 
Oh,  is  it  not  beautiful!  We  are  all  brothers,  after  all. 
The  sorrow  reveals  it.  It  is  just  as  when  two  brothers 
have  been  fighting  about  father's  property,  and  will  not 
speak  to  each  other.  Mother  dies,  and  they  go  home  to 
the  obsequies,  and  John  stands  on  one  side  of  the  moth- 
er's coffin,  and  George  on  the  other  side,  and,  for  the  first 
time  speaking  in  five  years,  say,  "  Wasn't  she  a  good 
mother?"  And  then  hands  clasp,  and  they  say,  "Oh, 
we  can't  live  this  way  any  longer,  can  we?"  And  so 
the  two  great  parties,  after  long  and  bitter  strife,  now 
clasp  hands  over  the  sepulchre  of  the  dead,  and  promise 
new  exertion  for  the  welfare  of  this  country.  If  there 
be  in  all  this  audience  a  base  heart  in  which  the  serpent 
of  bad  feeling  against  the  renowned  man  still  lingers, 
next  Wednesday  let  him  take  that  serpent  and  fling  it 
under  the  hoofs  of  the  black -tasseled  horses  that  shall 
draw  out  to  their  last  resting-place  this  great  man.  But 
I  am  lion-hunting  to-night,  and  I  have  no  ammunition  to 
waste  on  vultures  that  plunge  their  beaks  into  the  bo- 
soms of  the  dead. 

I  learn  from  this  solemn  providence  that  neiospaper 
m.en^  like  all  other  men^  will  have  to  come  to  an  account  be- 
fore God.  Nothing  could  keep  this  man  when  the  time 
came  for  him  to  go.  God  called ;  he  went.  The  doc- 
tors could  not  hold  him  back ;  the  prayers  of  a  nation 


HORACE  GREELEY,  LIVING  AND  DEAD.  287 

could  not  hold  him  back ;  even  his  own  loving  daughter, 
her  hand  in  his,  could  not  hold  him  back.  Surely  she 
had  enough  trouble.  Mother  gone,  and  father  gone — 
all  within  a  few  weeks.  God  comfort  that  double  an- 
guish, and  be  to  her  more  than  father  or  mother.  I  say 
when  God  called  him  to  meet  his  account,  he  had  to  go. 
It  is  a  vast  responsibility  that  rests  upon  people  that 
set  type  or  sit  in  editorial  chairs.  The  audience  is 
so  large,  the  influence  is  so  great,  the  results  are  so 
eternal,  that  I  believe,  in  the  day  of  judgment,  amidst 
all  the  millions  of  men  who  will  come  up  to  render 
their  account,  the  largest  account  will  be  rendered  by 
newspaper  men;  and  I  will  tell  you  why.  Here  is  a 
paper  that  has,  for  instance,  fifty  thousand  circulation. 
We  will  suppose  that  each  of  those  papers  is  read  by 
three  men.  There  is  an  audience  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  people.  Now,  suppose  that  in  one  of  the 
issues  of  that  paper  there  be  a  grand  truth  forcibly  put, 
how  magnificent  the  opportunity !  Suppose  there  be  a 
wrong  thing  projected  in  that  paper,  who  can  estimate 
the  undoing  of  that  one  issue !  Oh,  if  there  is  any  man 
who  needs  to  be  a  Christian,  it  is  an  editor!  He  needs 
more  grace,  more  help,  more  wisdom  than  any  other 
man.  Now,  in  the  columns,  it  is  by  custom  that  the 
editor  writes  "we"  and  "us;"  in  the  last  great  day  it 
will  be  "I"  and  "me."  I  congratulate  you,  newspaper 
men,  on  the  splendor  of  your  opportunity ;  but  I  charge 
you  before  God,  who  will  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead, 
that  you  be  careful  to  use  your  influence  in  the  right 
direction.  How  grand  will  be  the  result  in  the  last  day 
for  the  man  who  has  consecrated  the  printing-press  to 
high  and  holy  objects!      God  will  say  to  such  a  one, 


288  HORACE  GREELEY,  LIVING  AND  DEAD. 

*'  You  broke  off  a  million  chains,  you  opened  a  million 
blind  eyes,  you  gave  resurrection  to  a  million  of  the 
dead."  But  what  shall  become  of  those  who  have  pros- 
tituted their  press  to  blackmailing  and  the  advocacy  of 
that  which  is  wrong,  multiplying  the  numbers  of  their 
papers  by  pandering  to  the  tastes  of  bad  men  and  worse 
women,  poisoning  the  air  with  a  plague  that  killed  a  na- 
tion? Why,  God  will  say  to  such  men  in  the  last  day, 
"You  w^ere  destroying  angels,  smiting  the  first-born  of 
man  and  beast;  you  made  the  world  horribly  worse, 
when  you  might  have  made  it  gloriously  better.  Go 
down,  and  suffer  with  the  millions  you  have  damned ! 
You  knew  your  duty,  and  you  did  it  not." 

I  remark,  further,  there  ought  to  be,  in  consequence 
of  this  providence,  a  great  arousal  on  the  part  of  men 
engaged  in  temperance  reform.  Horace  Greeley  w^as  the 
champion  of  temperance  in  this  country.  His  pen  wrote 
more  and  effected  more  than  that  of  any  other  man. 
You  remember  how  he  spoke  last  winter  in  the  Lay 
College  on  this  subject.  Pie  was  a  hater  of  all  intoxi- 
cating drinks,  from  the  rye  whisky  that  pitches  the  sot 
into  the  ditch,  up  to  the  wine-glass  that  makes  a  fool  of 
the  fine  lady  in  the  parlor.  He  had  seen  so  much  devas- 
tation of  drunkenness  amidst  the  brethren  of  his  own  oc- 
cupation ;  he  had  heard  the  snapping  of  the  heart:Strings 
of  widowhood  and  orphanage,  robbed  by  the  fiend  that 
squats  in  the  wine-cask  and  sweats  in  the  brewery,  the 
smoke  of  its  torment  ascending  up  forever  and  forever. 
I  think  that  yesterday  all  the  gin-bottles  in  the  grog- 
shop rattled  with  gladness  when  it  was  told  that  Horace 
Greeley  was  dead,  and  that  drunkenness,  which  "biteth 
like  a  serpent  and  stingeth  like  an  adder,"  hissed  for  joy. 


HORACE  GREELEY,  LIVING  AND  DEAD.  289 

But  boast  not,  0  tliou  demon  of  the  pit!  If  Horace 
Greeley  is  dead,  the  principles  he  advocated  live.  Eli- 
sha  may  be  buried,  but  we  will  keep  his  grave  open,  and 
let  down  this  inert  cause  until,  touching  his  bones,  it 
shall  spring  np  with  tenfold  power,  and  go  forth  for  the 
conquest  of  the  world.  Because  Christ  turned  water 
into  wine,  men  turn  the  pure  juice  of  the  grape  into 
swill.  Now  that  the  standard-bearer  of  temperance  has 
fallen,  who  will  catch  up  the  colors  and  carry  them  on 
to  victory?  I  ask  these  fathers  and  mothers,  before 
their  sons  wither  under  this  hot  simoon  of  hell,  to  come 
and  join  the  standard.  I  ask  men  in  all  circumstances  to 
deny  their  palates  and  save  their  souls.  When  next 
Wednesday  the  nation  gathers  around  Horace  Greeley's 
grave,  I  would  like  to  have  the  little  children  whose  fa- 
thers he  redeemed  from  the  cup,  come  and  throw  flowers 
all  over  that  grave,  and  the  woman  whom  he  lifted  up 
from  the  squalor  of  being  a  drunkard's  wife  come  and 
pour  her  tears  on  the  resting-place  of  him  who  has  spo- 
ken his  last  word  and  written  his  last  line  in  behalf  of 
the  reformation  of  the  inebriate.  "  Howl,  howl,  fir-tree, 
for  the  cedar  has  fallen." 

I  learn,  again,  from  this  providence  that  the  last  hours 
of  a  mans  life  are  a  i:>oor  time  to  prepare  for  eternity.  I 
do  not  know  about  Mr.  Greeley's  experience ;  I  do  not 
know  whether  in  life  he  thought  much  about  the  things 
of  eternity.  I  suppose  he  did ;  I  hope  he  did.  I  read 
that  in  his  last  moments  he  said,  "  I  know  that  my  Re- 
deemer liveth ;"  and  a  man  who  can  say  that  is  fit  for 
any  thing  in  time  or  any  thing  in  eternity.  But  it  is 
my  belief,  it  is  my  hope  that,  in  the  daj^s  of  his  life,  he 
thought  much  upon  these  great  subjects,  and  did  not 


290  HORACE  GREELEY,  LIVING  AND  DEAD, 

leave  until  the  last  hour  consecration  to  God.  The  last 
moments  of  his  life  were  passed  under  mental  aberration, 
and  it  is  always  true  that  the  last  hours  of  a  man's  life 
are  a  poor  time  in  which  to  prepare  for  eternity.  It  is 
either  delirium  or  some  trouble  about  property,  or  it  is 
the  magnitude  of  world-changing,  or  it  is  bidding  good- 
bye to  friends — making  it  a  very  poor  hour  to  prepare 
for  heaven.  The  fact  is,  that  if  a  man  wants  to  get  ready 
for  eternity,  he  must  do  it  while  he  is  well.  I  do  not 
suppose  there  were  ten  men  in  the  United  States  with  a 
stronger  natural  constitution  than  Horace  Greeley;  but 
Death  is  an  old  besieger,  and  he  prides  himself  on  the 
strength  of  the  castle  he  takes.  Be  ye  also  ready.  Do 
not  wait  until  you  see  the  flamheau  of  the  bridegroom 
coming  through  the  darkness  before  you  begin  to  trim 
your  lamps.  You  may  wait  for  your  last  moment;  but 
when  your  last  moment  comes,  it  will  not  wait  for  you. 
There  are  a  great  many  doors  through  which  you  may 
get  out  of  this  world,  but  there  is  only  one  door  into 
heaven.  "/  am  the  doorj^  said  One  who  threw  out  his 
hands  in  the  gesticulation,  showing  the  sacrificial  blood 
clotted  in  the  palm  and  dripping  from  the  fingers.  I 
can  only  with  my  voice  reach  those  who  hear  it  now ; 
but  ye  men  of  the  press  who  take  the  words  I  utter  to- 
night, tell  all  the  cities,  tell  all  the  world  that  Jesus  died 
to  save  men ;  that  the  death-bed  is  a  poor  place  to  get 
ready  for  eternity ;  that  it  is  appointed  unto  all  men  once 
to  die,  but  after  that — the  judgment!  the  judgment! 

Hush,  all  ye  people !  Let  the  nation  uncover  its  head 
and  bow  lowly,  and  carry  out  the  illustrious  dead.  Along 
the  same  streets  where  he  trudged  a  poor  boy,  and  after- 
ward a  weary  man,  let  him  be  carried.     Hang  out  sig- 


HORACE  GREELEY,  LIVING  AND  DEAD.  291 

nals,  white  and  black — black  for  the  woe,  white  for  the 
resurrection.  Bring  him  across  the  river  into  this  city, 
where  he  alwaj^s  loved  to  come ;  then  out  toward  Green- 
wood take  him.  Toll  long  and  loud  the  bell  at  the  gate. 
Put  him  down  under  the  snow  to  rest — the  only  good 
rest  he  has  had  for  thirty  years ;  his  right  hand  closed, 
for  there  are  no  more  heroic  words  for  it  to  write ;  his 
lips  shut,  for  there  are  no  more  encouraging  words  for 
them  to  speak ;  his  brow  cool,  for  his  head  has  stopped 
aching  now ;  his  heart  quiet,  for  it  never  will  break  again. 
I  put  upon  his  grave  not  a  single  wreath,  not  a  single 
daisy  or  a  blossom  ;  but  I  put  upon  his  grave  a  scroll, 
plain  and  white,  a  scroll  half  open,  that  you  may  read  it 
from  both  sides:  "I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life: 
he  that  believeth  in  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall 
he  live."     "  Howl,  howl,  fir-tree,  for  the  cedar  is  fallen." 


292  TEE  ARRIVAL   OF  AUTUMN. 


THE  AERIYAL  OF  AUTUMN. 

"The  summer  is  ended." — Jeremiah  viii.,  20. 

THE  text  was  occasioned  by  the  departure  of  the 
glory  of  the  Jews;  but  read  on  this  first  autumnal 
Sabbath,  starts  up  in  my  mind  more  thoughts  than  the 
bang  of  a  sportsman's  gun  ever  routed  quails  out  of  the 
grass.     "  The  summer  is  ended." 

The  soul  of  the  intelligent  Christian  reflects  the  nat- 
ural world  from  all  sides.  While  there  are  those  who 
have  not  enough  beauty  in  their  souls  to  speckle  the 
wing  of  an  insect,  nor  enough  music  to  drown  the  buzz 
of  a  gadfly,  to  the  intelligent  Christian,  river-wave,  and 
cloud-bank,  and  tree-branch,  and  bird-song,  are  so  many 
evangelists  and  apostles  with  their  scroll  of  light  to  un- 
wind, and  their  sermon  to  preach.  He  sees  a  cross  in 
every  tree,  and  Christ  in  every  lily;  beholds  death  de- 
scending on  a  falling  leaf,  and  the  resurrection  foretold  in 
every  bud  bursting.  The  year  is  to  him  a  great  temple 
of  praise,  on  whose  altar,  as  an  offering,  spring  puts  its 
blossoms,  and  summer  its  sheaf  of  grain,  and  autumn  its 
branch  of  fruits;  while  winter,  like  a  white-bearded  priest, 
stands  at  the  altar  praising  God  with  psalm  of  snow  and 
hail  and  tempest. 

The  summer  season  is  the  perfection  of  JLhey ear.  The 
trees  are  in  full  foliage.  The  rose — God's  favorite  flower, 
for  he  has  made  nearly  five  hundred  varieties  of  it — flames 
with  divine  beauty.     I  do  not  wonder  that  Nero  once 


THE  ARRIVAL   OF  AUTUMN.  293 

paid  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  one 
wreath  of  roses  with  which  to  adorn  his  supper-table. 
The  origin  of  the  rose  is  suggested  by  the  legend  which 
says  in  the  East  a  holj^  woman  was  burned  at  the  stake, 
and  when  the  executioner  put  the  torch  to  the  wood,  it 
kindled  into  roses  instead  of  fire,  and  so  the  world  has 
had  plenty  of  flowers  ever  since.  Summer  is  the  season 
of  beauty.  The  world  itself  is  only  one  drop  from  the 
overflowing  cup  of  God's  jo3\  All  the  sweet  sounds  ever 
heard  are  but  one  tone  from  the  harp  of  God's  infinite 
melody.  When  God  made  all  things,  he  did  not  half  try. 
To  the  work  of  man  there  is  a  wrong  side,  but  there  is 
no  wrong  side  to  the  carpets  which  God  hath  nailed  to 
the  earth,  or  to  the  curtains  he  hath  hung  to  the  heavens. 
No  thread  ever  snaps  in  God's  loom.  In  your  recent 
wanderings  you  have  seen  the  beauty  of  the  Lord,  and 
the  beauty  of  the  summer. 

The  summe^i;us-«fe€)u-a^easo»"e^xposure.  Excursion 
trains  come  into  collision,  and  the  Waiuasset  perishes  on 
the  Potomac.  The  perils  of  the  traveler  were  illustrated 
by  the  conductor  on  the  Mount  Washington  Eailroad 
this  summer.  When  on  the  steepest  place  of  that  steep- 
est rail-track  in  all  the  earth,  a  man  was  frightened,  and 
said  to  the  conductor:  "  Suppose  the  locomotive  should 
give  out,  where  would  we  go  to?"  "Ah,"  said  the  con- 
ductor, "  there  is  a  brake  at  the  front  of  the  car."  "  But," 
said  the  traveler,  '' suppose  that  should  give  out,  where 
then  would  we  go  to?"  Said  the  conductor,  "There  is 
another  brake,  you  see,  on  the  cars."  "But,"  said  the 
affrighted  passenger,  "  suppose  that  also  should  give  way, 
where  then  would  we  go  to?"  And  the  conductor  replied, 
significantly,  "  That  depends  upon  how  you  have  lived." 


294  T^E  ABRIVAL   OF  AUTUMjV. 

Summer,  a  season  of  exposure!  Many  yield  to  the 
temptation,  and  eat'  forbidden  fruit,  the  sin  of  our  first 
parents,  and  die.  Diseases  that  had  their  root  in  some 
cough  of  the  winter,  in  the  summer  put  forth  the  white 
blossom  of  death.  Malaria  floats  on  the  August  night 
air.  Every  bill  of  mortality  is  increased.  Epidemics 
drive  out  their  hundred  hearses  to  Greenwood  and  Laurel 
Hill.  Old  age  sinks  down  from  exhaustion  under  the 
heat,  and  Death,  like  an  old  Herod,  sends  the  messengers 
to  Bethlehem  for  the  massacre  of  the  infants.  In  the 
week  that  ended  last  19th  of  July,  five  hundred  children 
died  in  the  city  of  New  York.  Summer  is  a  season  of 
exposure  as  well  as  a  season  of  harvest  and  a  season  of 
beauty. 

But  that  summer  wave  of  beauty  is  receding.  The 
sap  of  the  tree  is  halting  in  its  upward  current.  The 
night  is  fast  conquering  the  day.  The  populations  of  our 
great  cities  are  flying  homeward.  Crowded  rail-trains 
are  full  of  returning  tourists.  You  and  I  are  buckling 
on  the  work  of  the  cooler  months.  The  sports  of  our 
recreating  days  are  gone.  Summer  with  fever  heats  has 
perished,  and  to-night  we  twist  a  wreath  of  scarlet  sage 
and  china-asters  for  her  brow,  and  bury  her  under  the 
scattered  rose-leaves,  while  we  beat  amidst  the  woods  and 
by  the  water-courses  this  solemn  dirge,  "  The  summer  is 
ended  r 

There  are  three  or  four  classes  of  persons  of  whom 
the  words  of  my  text  are  descriptive.  In  the  first  place, 
they  are  appropriate ■  to  4he  aged.  Those  in  this  audi- 
ence who  are  far  advanced  in  years  were  once  just  like 
ourselves.  There  was  a  time  when  they  could  hardly 
bridle  their  exuberance.     They  laughed,  they  romped, 


THE  ABFJVAL  OF  AUTUMN.  295 

they  shouted,  they  sang.  The  world  was  as  bright  to 
them  then  as  it  is  to  us  now.  Though  they  are  in 
the  October  of  life  now,  it  was  June  with  them  once. 
They  take  with  placidity  things  that  once  would  have 
made  them  blaze  with  indignation.  Sometimes  they 
may  chide  us  because  of  our  vivacity;  but  when  two 
or  three  of  the  aged  get  together,  I  have  overheard  them 
talk  in  the  next  room  about  occurrences  which  make 
me  believe  that  v/hen  they  were  of  our  age  they  were 
just  like  us.  How  fast  they  did  drive!  What  strong 
wrestlers  they  brought  to  the  earth !  In  what  a  willful 
mood  they  upset  the  sleigh,  to  see  the  victims  crawl  out 
of  the  snow-bank!  How  many  "frolics"  there  were, 
and  how  many  "  quiltings !"  The  aged  do  not  talk  much 
to  us  about  these  things.  They  wonder  why  we  are  not 
as  cool  as  they  are.  Ah  !  the  dear  souls  forget  that  July 
is  never  as  cool  as  November.  Aged  Christians  used  to 
be  a  great  discouragement  to  me,  when  I  heard  of  their 
great  attainments,  and  viewed  my  own  spiritual  back- 
wardness ;  but  now  they  are  great  encouragement  to  me ; 
for  since  I  have  found  that  they  were  about  as  I  am,  I 
have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  same  things  which 
have  favored  them  will  favor  me,  and  I  get  some  hint  of 
what  a  good  man  I  will  be  in  my  ninetieth  year. 

But  the  aged  feel  life  going  away  from  them.  They 
stop  at  the  top  of  the  stairs,  all  out  of  breath,  and  say,  "I 
can't  walk  up  stairs  as  well  as  I  used  to."  They  hold 
the  book  off  on  the  other  side  of  the  light  when  they 
read.  Their  eye  is  not  so  quick  to  catch  a  sight,  nor 
their  ear  a  sound.  Instead  of  the  strong  stride  with  which 
they  once  went  along  the  street,  they  take  short  steps 
now,  as  though  about  to  stop  in  the  journey.     Their 

13 


296  THE  ARRIVAL   OF  AUTUMN. 

voice  is  tremulous,  and  their  hand,  that  failed  not  to  sen 
the  bullet  to  the  mark,  has  lost  its  steadiness.  Too  feebl 
even  to  walk  out,  on  pleasant  days  the  cushioned  chair 
is  wheeled  to  the  veranda.  The  bloom  and  verdure  of 
their  life  have  drooped.  June  has  melted  into  Julj. 
July  has  fallen  back  into  August.  August  has  cooled 
into  September.     "  The  summer  is  ended." 

I  have  noticed  that  in  this  climate,  in  the  latter  part  of 
October  or  the  first  of  November,  there  is  a  season  of 
beautiful  weather  called  Indian  summer.  It  is  the  gem 
of  all  the  year.  A  haziness  is  in  the  atmosphere,  but 
still  every  thing  is  pleasant  and  mild.  And  so  I  see  be- 
fore me  to-night  some  who  have  come  to  that  season. 
There  is  a  haziness  on  their  vision,  I  know,  but  the 
sweetness  of  heaven  has  melted  into  their  soul.  I  con- 
gratulate those  who  have  come  to  the  Indian  summer  of 
their  life.  Their  grandchildren  climb  up  on  the  back  of 
the  chair,  and  run  their  fingers  along  the  wrinkles  which 
time  has  for  a  long  while  been  furrowing  there.  On  sun- 
ny afternoons,  grandfather  goes  out  in  the  church-yarc 
and  sees  on  the  tombstones  the  names,  the  very  names 
that  sixty  years  ago  he  wrote  on  his  slate  at  school.  Hg 
looks  down  where  his  children  sleep  their  last  sleep,  and 
before  the  tears  have  fallen,  says,  "So  much  more  in 
heaven !"  Patiently  he  awaits  his  appointed  time,  until 
his  life  goes  out  gently  as  a  tide,  and  the  bell  tolls  him 
to  his  last  home  under  the  shadow  of  the  church  that  he 
loved  so  long  and  loved  so  well.  Blessed  old  age,  if  it 
be  found  in  the  way  of  righteousness ! 

But  I  remark  again,  that  my  text  is  appropriate  for 
all  tJiose  ivhose  fortunes  have  jperished.  If  a  man  lose  his 
property  attliirfy  or-forty  years  of  age,  it  is  only  a  sharp 


m  THE  ARRIVAL   OF  AUTUMN.  297 

i 

"liscipline,  generally,  by  whicli  later  he  comes  to  larger 
■uccess.     It  is  all  folly  for  a  man  to  sit  down  in  mid-life 
discouraged.     The  marshals  of  Napoleon  came  to  their 
commander,  and  said,  "  We  have  lost  the  battle,  and  we 
are  being  cut  to  pieces."     Napoleon  took  his  watch  from 
his  pocket,  and  said,  "It  is  only  two  o'clock  in  the  af- 
ternoon.    You  have  lost  that  battle,  but  we  have  time 
enough  to  win  another.     Charge  upon  the  foe !"    Though 
the  meridian  of  life  has  passed  with  you,  and  you  have 
been  routed  in  many  a  conflict,  give  not  up  in  discour- 
agement.    There  are  victories  yet  for  you  to  gain.     But 
sometimes  monetary  disaster  comes  to  a  man  when  there 
is  something  in  his  age,  or  something  in  his  health,  or 
something  in  his  surroundings,  which  make  him  know 
w^ell  that  he  will  never  get  up  again.     In  1857  it  was  es- 
timated  that  for  many  years  previous  to  that  time,  annu- 
ally, there  had  been  thirty  thousand  failures  in  the  United 
States.     Many  of  those  persons  never  recovered  from  the 
misfortune.     The  leaves  of  worldly  prosperity  all  scat- 
Jteixd— the  day-book,  and  the  ledger,  and  the  money-safe, 
<and  the  package  of  broken  securities  crying  out,  "The 
■  summer  is  ended."     But  let  me  give  a  word  of  comfort 
in  passing.     The  sheriff  may  sell  you  out  of  many  things, 
but  there  are  some  things  of  which  he  can  not  sell  you 
out.     He  can  not  sell  out  your  health.     He  can  not  sell 
out  your  family.     He  can  not  sell  out  your  Bible.     He 
can  not  sell  out  your  God.     He  can  not  sell  out  your 
heaven !     You  have  left  more  than  you  have  lost.     A 
man  of  large  wealth  died ;  two  men  were  talking  over 
his  death,  and  one  said  to  the  other,  "How  much  did 
he  leave ?''     The  other  man  thoughtfully  replied,  ''Every 
dollar  r     So  that  if  the  ghost  of  Stephen  Girard  or  John 


298  THE  AMRIVAL   OF  AUTUMN: 

Jacob  Astor  should  come  into  a  retail  store  on  Canal 
Street,  thej  could  not  get  trusted  for  ten  cents,  and  would 
not  have  money  enough  to  ride  in  a  car  on  Fulton  Ave- 
nue! The  poets  always  represent  ghosts  as  walking.  I 
suppose  they  can  not  afiford  to  ride.  Death  is  an  auc- 
tioneer which  sells  us  out  of  all  our  earthly  possessions, 
and  there  is  nothing  left  when  once  he  drops  his  hammer 
of  stone  on  the  coffin-lid,  crying,  "Gone!  gone!" 

But,  sons  and  daughters  of  God,  mourn  not  when  your 
property  goes.  The  world  is  yours,  and  life  is  yours, 
and  death  is  yours,  and  immortality  is  yours,  and  thrones 
of  imperial  grandeur  are  yours,  and  rivers  of  gladness 
are  yours,  and  shining  mansions  are  yours,  and  God  is 
yours!  The  eternal  God  hath  sworn  it;  and  every  time 
you  doubt  it,  you  charge  the  King  of  heaven  and  earth 
with  perjury.  Instead  of  complaining  how  hard  you 
have  it,  go  home  to-night,  take  up  your  Bible  full  of 
promises,  get  down  on  your  knees  before  God,  and  thank 
him  for  what  you  have^  instead  of  spending  so  much  time 
in  complaining  about  what  you  have  not. 

Again,  the  words  of  the  text  are  appropriate  to  all 
those  who  have  passed  through  luxuriant  seasons  of  grace 
without  improvement.  I  know  there  are  those  who  do 
not  believe  in  revivals ;  but  I  think  that  if  there  had 
been  no  revivals  there  would  not  have  been  a  single 
church  in  England  or  America  to-day.  It  would  have 
been  impossible  to  withstand  the  flood  of  sin  and  wretch- 
edness; had  it  not  been  for  those  large  gatherings,  the 
Church  of  God  could  not  have  maintained  its  ground. 
Suppose  a  foreign  despotism  should  attack  our  coun- 
try. Would  we  be  afraid  of  having  men  come  too  plen- 
tifully to  our  standard?     No!      We  would  say,  "Let" 


THE  ARRIVAL   OF  AUTUMN.  299 

them  come,  a  million  men  from  the  North,  a  million  men 
from  the  South,  and  a  million  men  from  the  West,  and 
let  us  go  out  and  fight  the  foe."    The  quicker  they  come 
and  the  vaster  the  multitude,  the  gladder  would  be  our 
huzza.     Yet  there  are  Christians  who,  when  they  see  a 
sudden  re-enforcement  in  the  Church,  are  afraid.     Alas! 
that  they  are  so  unwise.    A  revival  that  would  bring  all 
the  twelve  hundred  millions  of  our  race  into  the  king- 
dom of  God  in  one  day  ought  not  to  frighten  any  honest 
Christian.     But  there  are  men  in  the  house  who  have 
gone  through  revivals,  and  been  unsaved.     There  are 
hundreds  of  men  in  this  audience  before  me,  to-night, 
who  ought  to  have  been  saved  in  1857.     You  felt  the 
throb  of  that  national  upheaval.     You  remember  the 
time— many  of  you  do,  at  any  rate— when  the  engine- 
houses  were  turned  into  prayer-meetings;  when  in  one 
day,  to  one  of  our  ports,  there  came  five  vessels  with  sea- 
captains,  who  had  been  brought  to  God  in  the  last  voy- 
age.    Eeligion  broke  out  of  church  into  places  of  busi- 
ness and  amusement.     Christian  songs  floated  into  the 
temple  of  mammon,  while  the  devotees  were  counting 
their  golden  beads.    A  company  of  merchants  on  Cham- 
bers Street,  New  York,  at  their  own  expense,  hired  Bur- 
ton's old  theatre,  and  every  day  at  twelve  o'clock  the 
place  was  filled  with  men  crying  after  God.     The  tele- 
grams flashed  backward  and  forward  from  Fulton  Street 
prayer-meeting,  and  Jaynes's  Hall,  in  Philadelphia,  "God 
is  here!     Fifty  souls  to-day  borne  into  the  kingdom. 
Seventy -five  people  stood  up  for  prayers !     One  hundred 
souls  rejoicing  in  the  Gospel  I"     Oh,  that  was  the  health- 
iest excitement  the  world  has  ever  felt  since  the  day  of 
Pentecost.     Some  of  you  went  through  all  that,  and  are 


300  THE  ARRIVAL   OF  AUTUMN. 

not  saved.  It  required  more  resolution  and  determina- 
tion  for  you  not  to  be  saved  than,  under  God,  would 
have  made  you  a  Christian.  But  all  that  process  has 
hardened  your  soul.  Through  all  these  seasons  of  re- 
vival you  have  come,  and  you  are  to-night  living  with- 
out God,  on  the  way  to  a  death  without  hope.  "The 
summer  is  ended !" 

Again,  the  text  is  appropriate  to  all  those  who  expire 
after  aivasted  life.  There  are  two  things  that  I  do  not 
want  to  bother  me  in  my  last  hour.  The  one  is,  my 
worldly  affairs.  I  w^ant  all  those  affairs  so  plain  and 
disentangled  that  the  most  ignorant  administrator  could 
see  what  was  right  at  a  glance,  and  there  could  be  no 
standing  around  about  the  office  of  the  surrogate  de- 
vouring widow's  houses.  The  other  thing  I  do  not 
want  to  be  bothered  about  in  my  last  hour,  is  the  safety 
of  my  soul.  God  forbid  that  I  should  crowd  into  that 
last,  feeble,  languishing,  delirious  hour  questions  enough 
momentous  to  swamp  an  archangel !  The  saddest  thing 
on  earth  is  a  death-bed,  with  a  wasted  life  standinsf  on 
one  side  of  it,  and  an  overshadowing  eternity  standing 
on  the  other  side  of  it,  and  no  Jesus  Christ  anywhere 
in  the  room.  Pull  from  under  my  head  that  pillow 
stinging  with  thorns,  and  put  under  it  the  hand  of  Jesus, 
on  which  many  of  my  loved  ones  have  died.  Though 
the  pillow  may  seem  to  the  world  as  hard  as  the  rock 
on  which  Jacob  slept,  still  there  will  be  let  down  to  that 
Christian  death -pillow  a  ladder  reaching  into  the  heav- 
en, an  angel  on  the  lowest  rung,  an  angel  on  the  top 
rung,  and  an  angel  on  every  rung  between,  so  that  the 
soul  ascending  may  mount  upward,  stepping  from  wing 
to  winoj  into  the  skies.     But  the  commonest  thim?  in  the 


THE  ARRIVAL   OF  AUTUMN.  301 

world  is  for  a  man  to  die  without  hope.  How  we  all 
were  stunned  when  last  summer,  or  last  spring,  the  At- 
lantic struck  a  rock  near  Newfoundland ;  but  hark  to 
the  crash  of  ten  thousand  immortal  shipmates !  If  you 
have  ever  slept  in  a  house  on  the  prairie,  where  in  the 
morning,  without  rising  from  your  pillow,  you  could 
look  off  on  the  landscape,  you  could  see  it  miles  away, 
clear  to  the  horizon :  it  is  a  very  bewildering  scene. 
But  how  much  more  intense  the  prospect,  when  from 
the  last  pillow  a  soul  looks  back  on  life,  and  sees  one 
vast  reach  of  mercies,  mercies,  mercies  unimproved,  and 
then  gets  upon  one  elbow,  and  puts  the  head  on  the 
hand  to  see  bej^ond  all  that,  but  seeing  nothing  beyond 
but  mercies,  mercies,  mercies  unimproved.  The  bells  of 
sorrow  will  toll  through  all  the  past,  and  the  years  of 
early  life  and  mid-life  wail  with  a  great  lamentation.  A 
dying  woman,  after  a  life  of  frivolity,  says  to  me :  "  Mr. 
Talmage,  do  you  think  that  I  can  be  pardoned?"  I  say, 
"Oh  yes."  Then  gathering  herself  up  in  the  concen- 
tred dismay  of  a  departing  spirit,  she  looks  at  me,  and 
says,  "Sir,  I  know  I  shall  notT  Then  she  looks  up  as 
though  she  hears  the  click  of  the  hoofs  of  the  pale  horse, 
and  her  long  locks  toss  on  the  pillow  as  she  whispers, 
"  The  summer  is  ended." 

Again,  the  text  is  appropriate  to  all  those  loho  wahe 
up  iii^jL^iScomfited  eternity.  I  know  there  are  those 
who  say,  "  It  doh^t  rnake  any  difference  how  we  live  or 
what  we  believe.  We  will  come  out  at  the  golden  gate. 
They  are  all  there  together  in  glory — the  Pauls  and  the 
Xeros,  and  the  Abraham  Lincolns  and  the  John  Wilkes 
Booths,  the  Eobespierres  and  the  men  who  were  destroy- 
ed by  the  guillotine,  and  the  Court   of  Charles   I.  and 


302  THE  ARRIVAL   OF  AUTUMN. 

Louis  XYI. — all  together  in  glory.  If  I  thought  it  were 
true  that,  whatever  our  belief  or  behavior  in  this  world, 
w^e  would  go  safely,  I  would  preach  that.  It  is  a  great 
deal  pleasanter  to  offer  congratulation  than  to  offer  warn- 
ing. But  that  Bible  tells  us  differently,  and  our  own 
sense  of  what  is  right  utters  an  overwhelming  negative. 
Do  you  believe  that  your  sister  and  your  mother,  who 
lived  Christian  lives  and  died  holy  deaths,  are  now  in  a 
world  in  the  companionship  of  all  the  unrepentant  liber- 
tines and  debauchees  that  went  out  last  year  from  Baxter 
Street?  My  soul  abhors  the  idea.  Let  me  say,  if  your 
belief  leads  you  to  that,  so  that  you  really  do  think  that 
your  Christian  mother  and  your  Christian  sister  are  in 
such  society,  I  want  to  tell  you  mine  are  not!  mine  are 
not! 

No!  No!  The  good  must  go  up,  and  the  bad  must 
go  down.  I  want  no  Bible  to  tell  me  that  truth.  There 
is  something  within  my  heart  that  saj^s  it  is  not  possible 
that  a  man  whose  life  has  been  all  rotten  can,  in  the  fu- 
ture world,  without  repentance,  be  associated  with  men 
who  have  been  consecrated  to  Christ.  What  does  the 
Bible  say  ?  It  says  that  "As  we  sow  we  shall  reap." 
It  says,  "These  shall  go  away  into  everlasting  punish- 
ment, and  the  righteous  into  life  eternal."  Does  that  look 
as  though  they  were  coming  out  at  the  same  place  ? 
"And  there  was  a  great  gulf  fixed."  "And  the  smoke  of 
their  torment  ascendeth  up  for  ever  and  ever."  If  a  man 
rejects  the  Bible  I  am  not  surprised  that  he  believes  any 
thing,  or  refuses  to  believe  any  thing;  but  how  a  man 
can  believe  in  that  Bible,  and  yet  believe  that  all  the  good 
and  all  the  unrepentant  will  go  to  the  same  place,  I  can 
not  understand.    Ah  !  you  may  ask  me  strange  questions. 


THE  ARRIVAL   OF  AUTUMX.  303 

YoQ  may  say,  "Are  the  heathen  lost?"  I  reply,  God  has 
not  given  us  supervisal  of  the  heathen.  I  simplyknow 
this,  that  if  your  soul  and  mine  have  had  an  offer  of  life 
from  Christ  the  Lord,  and  reject  it,  and  continue  to  reject 
it,  we  must  go  to  the  bad  place,  and  not  come  out  of  it. 
I  am  not  now  discussing  the  state  of  the  heathen,  but  dis- 
cussing the  state  of  my  soul  and  yours. 

ISTow  suppose  a  man  goes  out  from  Brooklyn,  a  city  in 
which  there  are  as  many  religious  advantages  as  in  any 
city  under  the  sun,  and  suppose  he  wakes  up  in  a  dis- 
comfited eternity — how  will  he  feel?  Having  become  a 
serf  of  darkness,  how  will  he  feel  when  he  thinks  that  he 
might  have  been  a  prince  of  light?  Tliere  are  no  words 
of  lamentation  sufficient  to  express  that  sorrow.  You 
can  take  the  whole  group  of  sad  words  —  pain,  pang, 
convulsion,  excruciation,  torment,  agony,  woe — and  they 
come  short  of  the  reality.  The  summer  of  gracious  op- 
portunity is  all  gone.  The  last  clock  has  struck.  The  last 
bell  rung.  The  last  call  has  been  rejected.  Then  look- 
ing up  to  a  heaven  that  it  can  never  reach,  and  looking 
down  to  a  ruin  it  must  always  inhabit,  and  shivering  with 
the  chill  of  an  unending  horror,  the  soul  will  wring  its 
hands  and  cry,  "  The  summer  is  ended !" 

I  am  glad  that  that  hour  of  doom  has  not  struck  for 
any  body  here ;  and  I  mean  to-night  to  launch  a  life-boat 
large  enough  to  take  off  all  the  passengers.  Shove  off, 
my  lads,  and  pull  for  the  wreck!  What  is  the  use  of 
dying,  when  the  ten  thousand  voices  of  heaven  cry,  Live ! 
live !  Oh,  there  is  enough  mercy  in  the  heart  of  my  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  in  the  flash  of  an  instant,  to  take  all  this 
audience  into  the  peace  and  the  hope  of  the  Gospel  I  If 
I  point  you  out  the  peril,  it  is  only  because  I  want  to  tell 


301  THE  ARRIVAL   OF  AUTUMN. 

you  of  the  way  of  escape.  Say !  bondmen  of  sin  and 
death,  will  you  be  free?  Men  and  women  bought  out 
of  eternal  serfdom  by  your  own  Brother's  blood,  will  you 
accept  emancipation?  The  Lord  Jesus  waits  for  you. 
He  stands  on  two  torn  feet,  spreading  out  two  mangled 
hands,  with  which  He  would  press  you  to  His  broken 
heart;  while  heaven  bends  over,  watching  and  waiting  to 
see  whether  you  will  now  repent  and  believe,  lest  the 
night  drop,  and  the  last  chance  of  mercy  be  gone,  and  the 
door  be  shut,  and  the  harvest  is  past,  and  the  summer  is 
ended. 


BLEATING  SHEEP  AND  LOWING   OXEN.  305 


BLEATING  SHEEP  AND  LOWING  OXEN. 

"And  Samuel  said,  What  meaneth  then  this  bleating  of  the  sheep  in 
mine  ears,  and  the  lowing  of  the  oxen  which  I  hear?" — 1  Samuel  xv.,  14. 

THE  Amalekites  thought  they  had  conquered  God, 
and  that  he  would  not  carry  into  execution  his 
threats  against  them.  They  had  murdered  the  Israelites 
171  battle  and  out  of  battle,  and  left  no  outrage  untried. 
For  four  hundred  years  this  had  been  going  on,  and  they 
say,  "  God  either  dare  not  punish  us,  or  he  has  forgotten 
to  do  so."  Let  us  see.  Samuel,  God's  prophet,  tells 
Saul  to  go  down  and  slay  all  the  Amalekites,  not  leav- 
ing one  of  them  alive;  also  to  destroy  all  the  beasts  in 
their  possession  —  ox,  sheep,  camel,  and  ass.  Hark!  I 
hear  the  tread  of  two  hundred  and  ten  thousand  men, 
with  monstrous  Saul  at  their  head,  ablaze  with  armor, 
his  shield  dangling  at  his  side,  holding  in  his  hand  a 
spear,  at  the  waving  of  which  the  great  host  marched  or 
halted.  The  sound  of  their  feet  shaking  the  earth,  seems 
like  the  tread  of  the  great  God,  as,  marching  in  vengeance, 
he  tramples  nations  into  the  dust.  I  see  smoke  curling 
against  the  sky.  Now  there  is  a  thick  cloud  of  it;  and 
now  I  see  the  whole  city  rising  in  a  chariot  of  smoke 
behind  steeds  of  fire.  It  is  Saul  that  set  the  city  ablaze. 
The  Amalekites  and  Israelites  meet;  the  trumpets  of 
battle  blow  peal  on  peal,  and  there  is  a  death -hush. 
Then  there  is  a  signal  waved ;  swords  cut  and  hack ; 
javelins  ring  on  shields;    arms  fall   from  trunks,  and 


306  BLEATING  SHEEP  AND  LOWING  OXEN. 

heads  roll  into  the  dust.  Gasli  after  gash,  the  frenzied 
yel],  the  gurgling  of  throttled  throats,  the  cry  of  pain, 
the  laugh  of  revenge,  the  curse  hissed  between  clenched 
teeth  —  an  army's  death-groan.  Stacks  of  dead  on  all 
sides,  with  eyes  unshut  and  mouths  yet  grinning  ven- 
geance. Huzza  for  the  Israelites!  Two  hundred  and 
ten  thousand  men  wave  their  plumes  and  clap  their 
shields,  for  the  Lord  God  hath  given  them  the  victory. 

Yet  that  victorious  army  of  Israel  are  conquered  by 
sheep  and  oxen.  God,  through  the  prophet  Samuel, 
told  Saul  to  slay  all  the  Amalekites,  and  to  slay  all  the 
beasts  in  their  possession ;  but  Saul,  thinking  that  he 
knows  more  than  God,  saves  Agag,  the  Amalekitish  king, 
and  five  drove  of  sheep  and  a  herd  of  oxen  that  he  can 
not  bear  to  kill.  Saul  drives  the  sheep  and  oxen  down 
toward  home.  He  has  no  idea  that  Samuel,  the  prophet, 
will  find  out  that  he  has  saved  these  sheep  and  oxen  for 
himself  Samuel  comes  and  asks  Saul  the  news  from  the 
battle.  Saul  puts  on  a  solemn  face,  for  there  is  no  one 
who  can  look  more  solemn  than  your  genuine  hypocrite, 
and  he  says,  "  I  have  fulfilled  the  commandment  of  the 
Lord."  Samuel  listens,  and  he  hears  the  drove  of  sheep 
a  little  way  off.  Saul  had  no  idea  the  prophet's  ear  would 
be  so  acute.  Samuel  says  to  Saul,  "If  you  have  done  as 
God  told  you,  and  slain  all  the  Amalekites  and  all  the 
beasts  in  their  possession,  what  meaneth  the  bleating  of 
the  sheep  in  mine  ears,  and  the  lowing  of  the  oxen  that 
I  hear?"  Ah,  one  would  have  thought  that  blushes 
would  have  consumed  the  cheek  of  Saul !  No,  no !  He 
says  the  army — not  himself,  of  course,  but  the  army — 
had  saved  the  sheep  and  oxen  for  sacrifice;  and  then 
they  thought  it  would  be  too  bad  anyhow  to  kill  Agag, 


BLEATING  SHEEP  AND  LOWING   OXEN.  807 

the  Amalekitish  king.  Samuel  takes  the  sword  and  he 
slashes  Agag  to  pieces;  and  then  he  takes  the  skirt  of  his 
coat,  in  true  Oriental  style,  and  rends  it  in  twain,  as  much 
as  to  say,  "You,  Saul,  just  like  that,  shall  be  torn  away 
from  your  empire,  and  torn  away  from  your  throne."  In 
other  words,  let  all  the  nations  of  earth  hear  the  story 
that  Saul,  by  disobeying  God,  won  a  flock  of  sheep  but 
lost  a  kingdom. 

I  learn  first  from  this  subject  that  God  ivill  expose  liy- 
'pocrisy.  Here  Saul  pretends  he  has  fulfilled  the  divine 
commission  by  slaying  all  the  beasts  belonging  to  the 
Amalekites,  and  yet  at  the  very  moment  he  is  telhng  the 
story,  and  practicing  the  delusion,  the  secret  comes  out, 
and  the  sheep  bleat  and  the  oxen  bellow. 

A  hypocrite  is  one  who  pretends  to  be  what  he  is  not, 
or  to  do  what  he  does  not.  Saul  was  only  a  type  of  a 
class.  The  modern  hypocrite  looks  awfully  solemn, 
whines  when  he  prays,  and  during  his  public  devotion 
shows  a  great  deal  of  the  whites  of  his  eyes.  He  never 
laughs,  or,  if  he  does  laugh,  he  seems  sorry  for  it  after- 
ward, as  though  he  had  committed  some  great  indiscre- 
tion. The  first  time  he  gets  a  chance,  he  prays  twenty 
minutes  in  public,  and  when  he  exhorts,  he  seems  to  im- 
ply that  all  the  race  are  sinners,  with  one  exception,  his 
modesty  forbidding  the  stating  who  that  one  is.  There 
are  a  great  many  churches  that  have  two  or  three  eccle- 
siastical Uriah  Heeps. 

When  the  fox  begins  to  pray,  look  out  for  j^our  chick- 
ens. The  more  genuine  religion  a  man  has,  the  more 
comfortable  he  will  be;  but  you  may  know  a  religious 
impostor  by  the  fact  that  he  prides  himself  on  the  fact 
that  he  is  uncomfortable.     A  man  of  that  kind  is  of  im- 


308  BLEATING  SHEEP  AND  LOWING   OXEN. 

mense  damage  to  the  Churcli  of  Christ.  A  ship  may  out- 
ride a  hundred  storms,  and  yet  a  handful  of  worms  in  the 
planks  may  sink  it  to  the  bottom.  The  Church  of  God 
is  not  so  much  in  danger  of  the  cyclones  of  trouble  and 
persecution  that  come  upon  it  as  of  the  vermin  of  hy- 
pocrisy that  infests  it.  Wolves  are  of  no  danger  to  the 
fold  of  God  unless  they  look  like  sheep.  Arnold  was 
of  more  damage  to  the  army  than  Cornwallis  and  his 
hosts.  Oh,  we  can  not  deceive  God  with  a  church  cer- 
tificate! He  sees  behind  the  curtain  as  well  as  before 
the  curtain ;  he  sees  every  thing  inside  out.  A  man  may, 
through  policy,  hide  his  real  character;  but  God  will 
after  a  while  tear  open  the  whited  sepulchre  and  expose 
the  putrefaction.  Sunday  faces  can  not  save  him ;  long 
prayers  can  not  save  him ;  psalm-singing  and  church-go- 
ing can  not  save  him.  God  will  expose  him  just  as 
thoroughly  as  though  he  branded  upon  his  forehead  the 
word  "  Hypocrite."  He  may  think  he  has  been  success- 
ful in  the  deception,  but  at  the  most  unfortunate  moment 
the  sheep  will  bleat  and  the  oxen  will  bellow. 

One  of  the  cruel  bishops  of  olden  time  was  going  to 
excommunicate  one  of  the  martyrs,  and  he  began  in  the 
usual  form — "  In  the  name  of  God,  amen."  "  Stop  1"  saj^s 
the  martyr,  "  don't  say,  '  in  the  name  of  God !'  "  Yet 
how  many  outrages  are  practiced  under  the  garb  of  re- 
ligion and  sanctity  !  When,  in  synods  and  conferences, 
ministers  of  the  Gospel  are  about  to  say  something  un- 
brotherly  and  unkind  about  a  member,  they  almost  al- 
ways begin  by  being  tremendously  pious,  the  venom  of 
their  assault  corresponding  to  the  heavenly  flavor  of  the 
prelude.  Standing  there,  you  would  think  they  were 
ready  to  go  right  up  into  glory,  and  that  nothing  kept 


BLEATING  SHEEP  AXD  LOWING   OXEN.  809 

them  down  but  the  weis:ht  of  their  boots  and  overcoat, 


when  suddenly  the  sheep  bleat  and  the  oxen  bellow. 

Oh,  my  dear  friends,  let  us  cultivate  simplicity  of  Chris- 
tian character !  Jesus  Christ  said,  "  Unless  you  become  as 
this  little  child,  you  can  not  enter  the  kingdom  of  God." 
We  may  play  hypocrite  successfully  now,  but  the  Lord 
God  will  after  a  while  expose  our  true  character.  You 
must  know  the  incident  mentioned  in  the  history  of  Ot- 
tacas,  who  was  asked  to  kneel  in  the  presence  of  Ean- 
dolphus  I. ;  and  when  before  him  he  refused  to  do  it,  but 
after  a  while  he  agreed  to  come  in  private  when  there 
was  nobody  in  the  king's  tent,  and  then  he  would  kneel 
down  before  him  and  worship ;  but  the  servants  of  the 
king  had  arranged  it  so  that  by  drawing  a  cord  the  tent 
would  suddenly  drop.  Ottacas  after  a  while  came  in, 
and  supposing  he  was  in  entire  privacy,  knelt  before 
Eandolphus.  The  servants  pulled  the  cord,  the  tent 
dropped,  and  two  armies  surrounding  looked  down  on 
Ottacas  kneeling  before  Eandolphus.  If  we  are  really 
kneeling  to  the  world  while  we  profess  to  be  lowly  sub- 
jects of  Jesus  Christ,  the  tent  has  already  dropped,  and 
all  the  hosts  of  heaven  are  gazing  upon  our  hypocrisy. 
God's  universe  is  a  very  public  place,  and  you  can  not 
hide  hypocrisy  in  it. 

Going  out  into  a  world  of  delusion  and  sham,  pretend 
to  be  no  more  than  you  really  are.  If  you  have  the 
grace  of  God,  profess  it;  profess  no  more  than  you.  have. 
But  I  want  the  world  to  know  that  where  there  is  one 
hypocrite  in  the  Church  there  are  five  hundred  outside 
of  it,  for  the  reason  that  the  field  is  larger.  There  are 
men  in  all  circles  who  will  bow  before  you,  and  who  are 
obsequious  in  your  presence  and  talk  flatteringly,  but 


310  BLEATING  SHEEP  AND  LOWING   OXEN 

who  all  the  while  in  your  conversation  are  digging  for 
bait  and  angling  for  imperfections.  In  your  presence 
they  imply  that  they  are  every  thing  friendly,  but  after 
a  while  you  find  they  have  the  fierceness  of  a  catamount, 
the  slyness  of  a  snake,  and  the  spite  of  a  devil.  God 
will  expose  such.  The  gun  they  load  will  burst  in  their 
own  hands ;  the  lies  they  tell  will  break  their  own  teeth ; 
and  at  the  very  moment  they  think  they  have  been  suc- 
cessful in  deceiving  you  and  deceiving  the  world,  the 
sheep  will  bleat  and  the  oxen  will  bellow. 

I  learn  further  from  this  subject  how  natural  it  is  to 
try  to  put  off  our  sins  upon  other  people,  Saul  was  charged 
with  disobeying  God.  The  man  says  it  was  not  he ;  he 
did  not  save  the  sheep ;  the  army  did  it — trying  to  throw 
it  off  on  the  shoulders  of  other  people.  Human  nature  is 
the  same  in  all  the  ages.  Adam,  confronted  with  his  sin, 
said,  "  The  woman  tempted  me,  and  I  did  it."  And  the 
woman  charged  it  upon  the  serpent;  and  if  the  serpent 
could  have  spoken,  it  would  have  charged  it  upon  the 
devil.  I  suppose  the  real  state  of  the  case  was  that  Eve 
was  eating  the  apple,  and  that  Adam  saw  it,  and  begged 
and  coaxed  until  he  got  a  piece  of  it.  I  suppose  that 
Adam  was  just  as  much  to  blame  as  Eve  was.  You  can 
not  throw  off  the  responsibility  of  any  sin  upon  the 
shoulders  of  other  people. 

Here  is  a  young  man  who  says,  "I  know  I  am  doing 
wrong,  but  I  have  not  had  any  chance.  I  had  a  father 
who  despised  God,  and  a  mother  who  was  a  disciple  of 
godless  fashion.  I  am  not  to  blame  for  my  sins — it  is 
my  bringing  up."  Ah  no!  that  young  man  has  been 
out  in  the  world  long  enough  to  see  what  is  right,  and 
to  see  what  is  wrong,  and  in  the  great  day  of  eternity  he 


BLEATING  SHEEP  AND  LOWING   OXEN.  811 

can  not  throw  his  sins  upon  his  father  or  mother,  but 
will  have  to  stand  for  himself  and  answer  before  God. 
You  have  had  a  conscience,  you  have  had  a  Bible,  and 
the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Stand  for  yourself,  or 
fall  for  yourself. 

Here  is  a  business  man.  He  says,  "  I  know  I  don't  do 
exactly  right  in  trade,  but  all  the  dry-goods  men  do  it, 
and  all  the  hardware  men  do  this,  and  I  am  not  respon- 
sible." You  can  not  throw  off  your  sin  upon  the  shoul- 
ders of  other  merchants.  God  will  hold  you  responsible 
for  what  you  do,  and  them  responsible  for  what  they  do. 
I  want  to  quote  one  passage  of  Scripture  for  you — I 
think  it  is  in  Proverbs :  "  If  thou  be  wise,  thou  shalt  be 
wise  for  thyself;  but  if  thou  scornest,  thou  alone  shalt 
bear  it." 

I  learn  further  from  this  subject  what  God  meant  by 
extennination.  Saul  was  told  to  slay  all  the  Amalekites, 
and  the  beasts  in  their  possession.  He  saves  Agag,  the 
Amalekite  king,  and  some  of  the  sheep  and  oxen.  God 
chastises  him  for  it.  God  likes  nothing  done  by  halves. 
God  will  not  stay  in  the  soul  that  is  half  his  and  half  the 
devil's.  There  may  be  more  sins  in  our  soul  than  there 
were  Amalekites.  We  must  kill  them.  Woe  unto  us 
if  we  spare  Agag!  Here  is  a  Christian.  He  says,  "I 
will  drive  out  all  the  Amalekites  of  sin  from  my  heart. 
Here  is  jealousy — down  goes  that  Amalekite.  Here  is 
backbiting  —  down  goes  that  Amalekite;"  and  what 
slaughter  he  makes  among  his  sins,  striking  right  and 
left !  What  is  that  out  yonder,  lifting  up  his  head?  It 
is  Agag — it  is  worldliness.  It  is  an  old  sin  he  can  not 
bear  to  strike  down.  It  is  a  darling  transgression  he  can 
not  afford  to  sacrifice.     Oh,  my  brethren,  I  appeal  this 


812  BLEATING  SHEEP  AND  LOWING  OXEN. 

morning  for  entire  consecration !  Some  of  tbe  Presby- 
terians call  it  the  ''  higher  life."  The  Methodists,  I  be- 
lieve, call  it  "perfection."  I  do  not  care  what  you  call 
it;  without  holiness  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord.  I  know 
men  who  are  living  with  their  soul  in  perpetual  com- 
munion with  Christ,  and  day  by  day  are  walking  with- 
in sight  of  heaven.  How  do  I  know  ?  They  tell  me 
so.  I  believe  them.  They  would  not  lie  about  it.  Why 
can  not  we  all  have  this  consecration  ?  Why  slay  some 
of  the  sins  in  our  soul,  and  leave  others  to  bleat  and  bel- 
low for  our  exposure  and  condemnation.  Christ  will  not 
stay  in  the  same  house  with  Agag.  You  must  give  up 
Agag,  or  give  up  Christ.  Jesus  saj^s,  "All  of  that  heart 
or  none."  Saul  slew  the  poorest  of  tbe  sheep  and  the 
meanest  of  the  oxen,  and  kept  some  of  the  finest  and  the 
fattest,  and  there  are  Christians  who  have  slain  the  most 
unpopular  of  their  transgressions,  and  saved  those  which 
are  most  respectable.  It  will  not  do.  Eternal  war  against 
all  the  Amalekites ;  no  mercy  for  Agag. 

I  learn  farther  from  this  subject  that  it  is  vain  to  try 
to  defraud  God.  Here  Saul  thought  he  had  cheated  God 
out  of  those  sheep  and  oxen ;  but  he  lost  his  crown,  he 
lost  his  empire.  You  can  not  cheat  God  out  of  a  single 
farthing.  Here  is  a  man  who  has  made  ten  thousand 
dollars  in  fraud.  Before  he  dies  every  dollar  of  it  will 
be  gone,  or  it  will  give  him  violent  unrest.  Here  is  a 
Christian  who  has  been  largely  prospered.  He  has  not 
given  to  God  the  proportion  that  is  due  in  charities  and 
benevolences.  God  comes  to  the  reckoning,  and  he  takes 
it  all  away  from  3^ou.  Do  you  suppose,  if  a  man  has  an 
income  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  he  gives  only  five 
hundred  dollars  of  it  to  God,  that  God  is  going  to  let 


BLEATIXO   SHEEP  AXD  LO^VIXG    OXEX  318 

him  keep  it?  Ko.  Do  you  suppose  that  if  a  man  have 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  capital  or  in  estate,  and 
gives  only  two  thousand  of  it  to  the  Lord  God  in  a  year, 
that  God  is  going  to  let  him  keep  any  ?  Or,  keeping  it, 
it  will  curse  him  to  the  bone.  You  can  not  cheat  God. 
How  often  it  has  been  that  Christian  men  have  had  a 
large  estate,  and  it  is  gone.  The  Lord  God  came  into 
the  counting-room  and  said,  "I  have  allowed  you  to 
have  all  this  property  for  ten,  fifteen,  or  twenty  years, 
and  3^ou  have  not  done  justice  to  my  poor  children. 
When  the  beggar  called  upon  you,  you  hounded  him 
off  your  steps;  when  my  suffering  children  appealed  to 
you  for  help,  you  had  no  mercy.  I  only  asked  for  so 
much,  or  so  much,  but  you  did  not  give  it  to  me,  and 
now  I  will  take  it  all." 

God  asks  of  us  one-seventh  of  our  time  in  the  way  of 
Sabbath.  Do  you  suppose  w^e  can  get  an  hour  of  that 
time  successfully  away  from  its  true  object?  No,  no. 
God  has  demanded  one-seventh  of  your  time.  If  you 
take  one  hour  of  that  time  that  is  to  be  devoted  to  God's 
service,  and  instead  of  keeping  his  Sabbath,  use  it  for  the 
purpose  of  writing  up  your  accounts  or  making  worldly 
gains,  God  will  get  that  hour  from  you,  if  he  chases  you 
into  hell  to  get  it.  God  says  to  Jonah,  "  You  go  to  Nin- 
eveh." He  says,  "No,  I  wont.  I'll  go  to  Tarshisb." 
He  starts  for  Tarshish.  The  sea  raves,  the  winds  blow, 
and  the  ship  rocks.  Come,  ye  whales,  and  take  this  pas- 
senger for  Tarshish !  No  man  ever  gets  to  Tarshish 
"whom  God  tells  to  go  to  Nineveh.  The  sea  w^ould  not 
carry  him ;  it  is  God's  sea.  The  w^inds  would  not  waft 
him;  they  are  God's  winds.  Let  a  man  attempt  to  do 
that  which  God  forbids  him  to  do,  or  to  go  into  a  place  • 


814  BLEATING  SHEEP  AND  LOWING   OXEN. 

■where  God  tells  him  not  to  go,  the  natural  world  as  well 
as  God  is  against  him.  The  lightnings  are  ready  to 
strike  him,  the  fires  to  burn  him,  the  sun  to  smite  him, 
the  waters  to  drown  him,  and  the  earth  to  swallow  him. 
Those  whose  princely  robes  are  woven  out  of  heart's 
strings ;  those  whose  fine  houses  are  built  out  of  skulls ; 
those  whose  springing  fountains  are  the  tears  of  oppress- 
ed nations — have  they  successfully  cheated  God  ?  The 
last  day  will  demonstrate — it  will  be  found  out  on  that 
day  that  God  vindicated  not  only  his  goodness  and  his 
nierc}^  but  his  power  to  take  care  of  his  own  rights  and 
the  rights  of  his  Church,  and  the  rights  of  his  oppressed 
children.  Come,  ye  martyred  dead,  awake !  and  come  up 
from  the  dungeons  where  folded  darkness  hearsed  you, 
and  the  chains  like  cankers  peeled  loose  the  skin,  and 
wore  off  the  flesh,  and  rattled  on  the  marrowless  bones. 
Come,  ye  martyred  dead,  from  the  stakes  where  you  were 
burned,  where  the  arm  uplifted  for  mercy  fell  into  the  ash- 
es, and  the  cry  of  pain  was  drowned  in  the  snapping  of  the 
flame  and  the  howling  of  the  mob ;  from  valleys  of  Pied- 
mont and  Smithfield  Square,  and  London  Tower,  and  the 
Highlands  of  Scotland.  Gather  in  great  procession,  and 
together  clap  3^our  bony  hands,  and  together  stamp  your 
mouldy  feet,  and  let  the  chains  that  bound  3^ou  to  dun- 
geons all  clank  at  once,  and  gather  all  the  flames  that 
burned  you  in  one  uplifted  arm  of  fire,  and  plead  for  a 
judgment.  Gather  all  the  tears  ye  ever  wept  into  a 
lake,  and  gather  all  the  sighs  ye  ever  breathed  into  a 
tempest,  until  the  heaven-piercing  chain-clank,  and  the 
tempest-sigh,  and  the  thunder-groan,  announces  to  earth 
and  hell  and  heaven  a  judgment!  a  judgment!  Oh, 
on  that  day  God  will  vindicate  his  own  cause,  and  vin- 


BLEATISQ  ISHEEP  AND  LOWIXQ   OXEN.  315 

dicate  tlie  cause  of  the  troubled  and  the  oppressed !  It 
will  be  seen  in  that  day  that  though  we  may  have  rob- 
bed our  fellows,  we  never  have  successfully  robbed  God. 
My  Christian  friends,  as  you  go  out  into  the  world,  ex- 
hibit an  open-hearted  Christian  frankness.  Do  not  be 
hypocritical  in  any  thing ;  you  are  never  safe  if  you  are. 
At  the  most  inopportune  moment,  the  sheep  will  bleat 
and  the  oxen  bellow.  Drive  out  the  last  Amalekite  of 
sin  from  your  soul.  Have  no  mercy  on  Agag.  Down 
with  your  sins;  down  with  your  pride;  down  with  your 
worldliness.  I  know  you  can  not  achieve  this  work  by 
your  own  arm,  but  Almighty  grace  is  sufficient — that 
which  saved  Joseph  in  the  pit;  that  which  delivered 
Daniel  in  the  den ;  that  which  shielded  Shadrach  in  the 
fire;  that  which  cheered  Paul  in  the  shipwreck. 


,!(>  LIFFKJULT  BUWiyO. 


DIPFICULT  EOWIXa. 

"The  men  rowed  hard  to  bring  it  to  the  land;  but  they  could  not; 
wherefore  thev  cried  uuto  the  Lord."' — Jonah  i.,  13, 1-t. 


N 


'AYIGATIOX  in  the  Mediterranean  Sea  always  was 
-»-^  perilous,  especially  so  in  early  times.  Vessels  were 
propelled  partly  by  sail  and  partly  by  oar.  "VThen,  by 
reason  of  great  stress  of  weather,  it  was  necessary  to  reef 
the  canvas  or  haul  it  in,  then  the  vessel  was  entirely  de- 
pendent upon  the  oars,  sometimes  twenty  or  thirty  of 
them  on  either  side  the  vessel.  You  w^ould  not  venture 
outside  Sandy  Hook  with  such  a  craft  as  my  text  finds 
Jonah  sailing  in ;  but  he  had  not  much  choice  of  vessels. 
He  was  running  away  from  the  Lord ;  and  when  a  man 
is  running  away  from  the  Lord,  he  has  to  run  very  fast. 
God  had  told  Jonah  to  go  to  Xineveh,  to  preach  about 
the  destruction  of  that  city.  Jonah  disobeyed.  That 
always  makes  rough  water,  whether  in  the  Mediterra- 
nean, or  the  Atlantic,  or  the  Pacific,  or  the  Caspian  Sea, 
or  in  the  Hudson,  or  the  East  Eiver.  It  is  a  very  hard 
thing  to  scare  sailors.  I  have  seen  them,  when  the  prow 
of  the  vessel  was  almost  under  water,  and  they  w^ere 
•walking  the  deck  knee -deep  in  the  surf,  and  the  small 
boats  by  the  side  of  the  vessel  had  been  crushed  as  small 
as  kindling^-wood,  w^histlins^  as  though  nothins:  had  hap- 
pened ;  but  the  Bible  says  that  these  mariners  of  whom 
I  speak  were  frightened.  That  which  sailors  call  ''  a 
lump  of  a  sea"  had  become  a  blinding,  deafening,  swamp- 


DIFFICULT  HOWIXG.  317 

ing  fury.  How  mad  the  wind  can  get  at  the  v/ater,  and 
the  water  can  get  at  the  wind,  you  do  not  know  unless 
you  have  been  spectators.  I  have  in  my  house  a  piece 
of  the  sail  of  a  ship,  no  larger  than  the  palm  of  my  hand : 
that  piece  of  canvas  was  all  that  was  left  of  the  largest 
sail  of  the  ship  Greece,  that  went  into  the  storm  five  hun- 
dred miles  off  Newfoundland,  last  September  a  year. 
Oh,  what  a  night  that  was!  I  suppose  that  it  was  in 
some  such  storm  as  this  that  Jonah  was  causht. 

He  knew  that  the  tempest  was  on  his  account,  and  he 
asked  the  sailors  to  throw  him  overboard.  Sailore  are  a 
generous -hearted  race,  and  they  resolved  to  make  their 
escape,  if  possible,  without  resorting  to  such  extreme 
measures.  The  sails  are  of  no  use,  and  so  they  lay  hold 
on  their  oars.  I  see  the  long  bank  of  shining  blades 
on  either  side  the  vessel.  Oh !  how  they  did  pull,  the 
bronzed  seamen,  as  they  laid  back  into  the  oars.  But 
rowing  on  the  sea  is  very  different  from  rowing  upon  a 
river;  and  as  the  vessel  hoists,  the  oars  skip  the  wave 
and  miss  the  stroke,  and  the  tempest  laughs  to  scorn  the 
flying  paddles.  It  is  of  no  use,  no  use.  There  comes  a 
wave  that  crashes  the  last  mast,  and  sweeps  the  oarsmen 
from  their  places,  and  tumbles  every  thing  in  the  con- 
fusion of  impending  shipwreck,  or,  as  my  text  has  it, 
'•The  men  rowed  hard  to  bring  it  to  the  land;  but  they 
could  not:  wherefore  they  cried  nnto  the  Lord.'' 

This  scene  is  very  suggestive  to  me,  and  I  pray  God  I 
may  have  grace  and  strength  enough  to  represent  it  be- 
fore this  dying  yet  immortal  auditory.  Two  years  ago  I 
preached  you  a  sermon  on  another  phase  of  this  very 
subject,  and  I  got  a  letter  some  weeks  ago  from  Houston, 
Texas,  the  writer  saying  that  the  reading  of  that  sermon 


318  DIFFICULT  ROWING. 

in  London  had  led  him  to  God.  And  last  night  I  re- 
ceived another  letter  from  South  Australia,  saying  that 
the  reading  of  that  sermon  in  Australia  had  brought  sev- 
eral souls  to  Christ.  And  then,  I  thought,  why  not  now 
take  another  phase  of  the  same  subject,  for  perhaps  that 
God  who  can  raise  in  power  that  which  is  sown  in  weak- 
ness may  this  night,  through  another  phase  of  the  same 
subject,  bring  salvation  to  the  people  who  shall  hear,  and 
salvation  to  the  people  who  shall  read.  Men  and  wom- 
en, who  know  how  to  pray,  lay  hold  of  the  Lord  God 
Almighty  to-night,  and  wrestle  for  the  blessing. 

Bishop  Latimer  would  stop  sometimes  in  his  sermon,  in 
the  midst  of  his  argument,  and  say,  "  Now,  I  will  tell  you 
a  fable ;"  and  to-night  I  would  like  to  bring  the  scene  of 
the  text  as  an  illustration  of  a  most  important  religious 
truth.  As  those  Mediterranean  oarsmen  trying  to  bring 
Jonah  ashore  were  discomfited,  I  have  to  tell  you  that 
they  were  not  the  only  men  who  have  broken  down  on 
their  paddles,  and  have  been  obliged  to  call  on  the  Lord 
for  help.  I  want  to  say  that  the  unavailing  efforts  of 
those  Mediterranean  oarsmen  has  a  counterpart  in  the 
efforts  we  are  making  to  bring  souls  to  the  shore  of  safety  and 
set  their  feet  on  the  Rock  of  Ages.  You  have  a  father,  or 
mother,  or  husband,  or  wife,  or  child,  or  near  friend,  who 
is  not  a  Christian.  There  have  been  times  when  you 
have  been  in  agony  about  their  salvation.  A  minister  of 
Christ,  whose  wife  was  dying  without  any  hope  in  Jesus, 
walked  the  floor,  wrung  his  hands,  cried  bitterly,  and 
said,  "I  believe  I  shall  go  insane,  for  I  know  she  is  not 
prepared  to  meet  God."  And  there  may  have  been  daj's 
of  sickness  in  your  household,  when  you  feared  it  would 
be  a  fatal  sickness ;  and  how  closely  you  examined  the 


DIFFICULT  ROWING.  319 

face  of  the  doctor  as  he  came  in  and  scrutinized  the  pa- 
tient, and  felt  the  pulse,  and  you  followed  him  into  the 
next  room,  and  said,  "There  isn't  any  danger,  is  there, 
doctor?"  And  the  hesitation  and  the  uncertainty  of  the 
reply  made  two  eternities  flash  before  your  vision.  And 
then  you  went  and  talked  to  the  sick  one  about  the  great 
future.  Oh,  there  are  those  here  who  have  tried  to  bring 
their  friends  to  God!  They  have  been  unable  to  bring 
them  to  the  shore  of  safety.  They  are  no  nearer  that 
point  than  they  were  twenty  years  ago.  You  think  you 
have  got  them  almost  to  the  shore,  when  j'ou  are  swept 
back  again.  What  shall  you  do?  Put  down  the  oar? 
Oh  no !  I  do  not  advise  that;  but  I  do  advise  that  you 
appeal  to  that  God  to  whom  the  Mediterranean  oarsmen 
appealed — the  God  who  could  silence  the  tempest  and 
bring  the  ship  in  safety  to  the  port.  I  tell  you,  my 
friends,  that  there  has  got  to  be  a  good  deal  of  praying 
before  our  families  are  brought  to  Christ.  Ah !  it  is  an 
awful  thing  to  have  half  a  household  on  one  side  the  line, 
and  the  other  part  of  the  household  on  the  other  side 
of  the  line !  Oh,  the  possibility  of  an  eternal  separation  ! 
One  would  think  that  such  a  thought  would  hover  over 
the  pillow,  and  hover  over  the  arm-chair,  and  hover  over 
the  table,  and  that  each  clatter  at  the  door  would  cause  a 
shudder  as  though  the  last  messenger  had  come.  To 
live  together  in  this  world  five  years,  or  ten  years,  or 
fifty  years,  and  then  afterward  to  live  away  from  each 
other  millions,  millions,  millions,  millions  of  years,  and  to 
know  and  feel  that  between  us  and  eternal  separation 
there  is  only  one  heart-beat !  When  our  Christian  friends 
go  out  of  this  life  into  glory,  we  are  comforted.  We  feel 
we  shall  meet  them  again  in  the  good  land.     But  to  have 


320  DIFFICULT  liOWING. 

two  vessels  part  on  the  ocean  of  eternity,  one  going  to 
the  right  and  the  other  to  the  left — farther  apart,  and  far- 
ther apart — until  the  signals  cease  to  be  recognized,  and 
there  are  only  two  specks  on  the  horizon,  and  then  they 
are  lost  to  sight  forever  ! 

I.  have  to  tell  you  that  the  unavailing  efforts  of  these 
Mediterranean  oarsmen  has  a  counterpart  in  the  efforts 
some  of  us  are  making  to  bring  our  children  to  the  shore 
of  safety.  There  never  were  so  many  temptations  for 
young  people  as  there  are  now.  The  literary  and  the 
social  influences  seem  to  be  against  their  spiritual  inter- 
ests. Christ  seems  to  be  driven  almost  entirely  from  the 
school  and  the  pleasurable  concourse,  yet  God  knows 
how  anxious  we  are  for  our  children.  We  can  not  think 
of  going  into  heaven  without  them.  We  do  not  want 
to  leave  this  life  while  they  are  tossing  on  the  waves  of 
temptation  and  away  from  God.  From  which  of  them 
could  we  consent  to  be  eternally  separated  ?  Would  it 
be  the  son?  Would  it  be  the  daughter?  Would  it  be 
the  eldest?  Would  it  be  the  youngest?  Would  it  be 
the  one  that  is  well  and  stout,  or  the  one  that  is  sick? 
Oh,  I  hear  some  parent  saying  to-night,  "  I  have  tried  my 
best  to  bring  my  children  to  Christ.  I  have  laid  hold  of 
the  oars  until  they  bent  in  my  grasp,  and  I  have  braced 
myself  against  the  ribs  of  the  boat,  and  I  have  pulled 
for  their  eternal  rescue;  but  I  can't  get  them  to  Christ." 
Then  I  ask  you  to  imitate  the  men  of  the  text,  and  cry 
mightily  unto  God.  We  want  more  importunate  praj^- 
ing  for  children,  such  as  the  flxther  indulged  in  when  he 
had  tried  to  bring  his  six  sons  to  Christ,  and  they  had 
wandered  off  into  dissipation.  Then  he  got  down  in 
his  prayers,  and  said,  "  0  God  I  take  away  my  life,  if 


DIFFICULT  BOWING.  321 

through  that  means  mj  sons  may  repent  and  be  brought 
to  Christ;"  and  the  Lord  startlinglj  answered  the  prayer, 
and  in  a  few  weeks  the  father  was  taken  away,  and 
through  the  solemnity  the  six  sons  fled  unto  God.  Oh, 
that  father  could  afford  to  die  for  the  eternal  welfare  of 
his  children!  He  rowed  hard  to  bring  them  to  the 
hmd,  but  could  not,  and  then  he  cried  unto  the  Lord. 
There  are  parents  here  who  are  almost  discouraged 
about  their  children.  Where  is  your  son  to-night?  He 
has  wandered  off,  perhaps,  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  It 
seems  as  if  he  can  not  get  far  enough  away  from  your 
Christian  counsel.  What  does  he  care  about  the  furrows 
that  come  to  your  brow;  about  the  quick  whitening  of 
the  hair;  about  the  fact  that  your  back  begins  to  stoop 
with  the  burdens?  Why,  he  would  not  care  much  if 
he  heard  you  were  dead!  The  black- edged  letter  that 
brought  the  tidings  he  would  put  in  the  same  package 
with  other  letters  telling  the  story  of  his  shame.  What 
are  you  going  to  do?  Both  paddles  broken  at  the  mid- 
dle of  the  blade,  how  can  you  pull  him  ashore?  I  throw 
you  one  oar  to-night  with  which  I  believe  you  can  bring 
him  into  harbor.  It  is  the  glorious  promise:  "I  will  be 
a  God  to  thee,  and  to  thy  seed  after  thee."  Oh,  broken- 
liearted  father  and  mother,  you  have  tried  every  thing 
else,  now  make  an  appeal  for  the  help  and  omnipotence 
of  the  covenant-keeping  God!  and  perhaps  at  your  next 
family  gathering — perhaps  on  Thanksgiving-day,  perhaps 
next  Christmas-day — the  prodigal  may  be  home ;  and  if 
you  crowd  on  his  plate  more  luxuries  than  on  any  other 
plate  at  the  table,  I  am  sure  the  brothers  will  not  be 
jealous,  but  they  will  wake  up  all  the  music  in  the  house, 
"because  the  dead  is  alive  again,  and  because  the  lost  is 


322  DIFFICULT  ROWING. 

found."  Perhaps  your  prayers  have  been  answered  al- 
ready. The  vessel  may  be  coming  homeward,  and  by 
the  light  of  this  night's  stars  that  absent  son  may  be  pa- 
cing the  deck  of  the  ship,  anxious  for  the  time  to  come 
when  he  can  throw  his  arm  around  your  neck  and  ask 
for  forgiveness  for  that  he  has  been  wringing  your  old 
heart  so  long.  Glorious  reunion  !  that  will  be  too  sacred 
for  outsiders  to  look  upon  ;  but  I  would  just  like  to  look 
through  the  wnndow  when  you  have  all  got  together 
again,  and  are  seated  at  the  banquet. 

*' Though  parents  may  in  covenant  be, 
And  have  theii*  heaven  in  view ; 
They  are  not  happy  till  they  see 
Their  children  happy  too." 

Again,  I  remark  that  the  unavailing  effort  of  the 
Mediterranean  oarsmen  has  a  counterpart  in  the  effort 
which  we  are  making  to  bring  this  ivorld  hade  to  God^  his 
pardon,  and  safety.  If  this  world  could  have  been  saved 
by  human  effort,  it  w^ould  have  been  done  long  ago. 
John  Howard  took  hold  of  one  oar,  and  Carey  took 
hold  of  another  oar,  and  Adoniram  Judson  took  hold  of 
another  oar,  and  Luther  took  hold  of  another  oar,  and 
John  Knox  took  hold  of  another  oar,  and  they  pulled 
until  they  fell  back  dead  from  the  exhaustion.  Some 
dropped  in  the  ashes  of  martyrdom,  some  on  the  scalp- 
ing-knives  of  savages,  and  some  into  the  plague-struck 
room  of  the  lazaretto ;  and  still  the  chains  are  not  bro- 
ken, and  still  the  despotisms  are  not  demolished,  and 
still  the  world  is  unsaved.  What  then  ?  Put  down  the 
oars  and  make  no  effort?  I  do  not  advise  that.  But 
I  want  you.  Christian  brethren,  to  understand  that  the 
church,  and  the  school,  and  the  college,  and  the  mission- 


DIFFICULT  HOWIXG.  823 

ary  society  are  only  the  instrumentalities;  and  if  this 
work  is  ever  done  at  all,  God  must  do  it,  and  he  will  do 
it,  in  answer  to  our  prayer.  "  They  rowed  hard  to  bring 
it  to  the  land ;  but  they  could  not :  wherefore  they  cried 
unto  the  Lord." 

Again,  the  unavailing  effort  of  those  Mediterranean 
oarsmen  has  a  counterpart  in  every  man  that  is  trying  to 
roiu  his  oiun  soul  into  safety.  When  the  Eternal  Spirit 
flashes  upon  us  our  condition,  we  try  to  save  ourselves. 
We  say,  "  Give  me  a  stout  oar  for  my  right  hand,  give 
me  a  stout  oar  for  my  left  hand,  and  I  will  pull  myself 
into  safety."  No.  A  wave  of  sin  comes  and  dashes  you 
one  way,  and  a  wave  of  temptation  comes  and  dashes 
you  in  another  way,  and  there  are  plenty  of  rocks  on 
which  to  founder,  but  seemingly  no  harbor  into  which 
to  sail.  Sin  must  be  thrown  overboard,  or  we  must  per- 
ish. There  are  men  in  this  house,  in  all  these  galler- 
ies, who  have  tried  for  ten  years  to  become  Christians. 
They  believe  all  I  say  in  regard  to  a  future  world. 
They  believe  that  religion  is  the  first,  the  last,  the  infi- 
nite necessity.  With  it,  heaven !  Without  it,  hell !  They 
do  every  thing  but  timst  in  Christ.  They  make  sixty 
strokes  in  a  minute.  They  bend  forward  with  all  ear- 
nestness, and  they  lay  back  until  the  muscles  are  dis- 
tended, and  yet  they  have  not  made  one  inch  in  ten 
years  toward  heaven.  What  is  the  reason?  That  is 
not  the  way  to  go  to  work.  You  might  as  well  take  a 
frail  skiff,  and  put  it  down  at  the  foot  of  Niagara,  and 
then  head  it  up  toward  the  churning  thunder-bolt  of  wa- 
ters, and  expect  to  work  your  way  up  through  the  light- 
ning of  the  foam  into  calm  Lake  Erie,  as  for  you  to  try 
to  pull  yourself  through  the  surf  of  your  sin  into  the 


324  DIFFICULT  ROWING. 

hope,  and  pardon,  and  placidity  of  the  Gospel.  You 
can  not  do  it  in  that  way.  Sin  is  a  rough  sea,  and 
]ong-boat,  yawl,  pinnace,  and  gondola  go  down  unless 
the  Lord  deliver;  but  if  you  will  cry  to  Christ  and  lay 
hold  of  divine  mercy,  you  are  as  safe  from  eternal  con- 
demnation as  though  you  had  been  twenty  years  in 
heaven. 

I  wish  I  could  put  before  this  audience,  unpardoned, 
their  own  helplessness.  You  will  be  lost  as  sure  as  you 
sit  there  if  you  depend  upon  your  own  power.  You  can 
not  do  it.  No  human  arm  was  ever  strong  enough  to 
unlock  the  door  of  heaven.  No  foot  was  ever  mighty 
enough  to  break  the  shackle  of  sin.  ISTo  oarsman 
swarthy  enough  to  row  himself  into  God's  harbor.  The 
wind  is  against  you.  The  tide  is  against  you.  The 
Law  is  against  you.  Ten  thousand  corrupting  influences 
are  against  you.  Helpless  and  undone.  Not  so  help- 
less a  sailor  on  a  plank,  mid- Atlantic.  Not  so  helpless 
a  traveler  girded  by  twenty  miles  of  prairie  on  fire. 
Prove  it,  you  say.  I  will  prove  it.  John  vi.,  44:  "No 
man  can  come  to  me,  except  the  Father  which  hath  sent 
me  draw  him." 

But  while  I  have  shown  your  helplessness,  I  want  to 
put  by  the  side  of  it  the  power  and  willingness  of  Christ 
to  save  you.  I  think  it  was  in  1686  a  vessel  was  bound 
for  Portugal,  but  it  was  driven  to  pieces  on  an  unfriend- 
ly coast.  The  captain  had  his  son  with  him,  and  with 
the  crew  they  wandered  up  the  beach,  and  started  on  the 
long  journey  to  find  relief.  After  a  while,  the  son  faint- 
ed by  reason  of  hunger  and  the  length  of  the  way.  The 
captain  said  to  the  crew,  "  Carry  my  boy  for  me  on  your 
They  carried' him  on  ;  but  the  journey  was 


DIFFICULT  ROWING.  325 

SO  long,  that  after  a  while  the  crew  fainted  from  hunger 
and  from  weariness,  and  could  carry  him  no  longer.  Then 
the  father  rallied  his  almost  wasted  energy,  and  took  up 
his  own  boy,  and  put  him  on  his  shoulder,  and  carried 
him  on  mile  after  mile,  mile  after  mile,  until,  overcome 
himself  by  hunger  and  weariness,  he  too  fainted  by  the 
w\iy.  The  boy  laid  down  and  died,  and  the  father,  just 
at  the  time  rescue  came  to  him,  also  perished,  living  only 
long  enough  to  tell  the  story — sad  story,  indeed!  But 
glory  be  to  God  that  Jesus  Christ  is  able  to  take  us  up 
out  of  our  shipwrecked  and  dying  condition,  and  put  us 
on  the  shoulder  of  his  strength,  and  by  the  omnipotence 
of  his  Gospel  bear  us  on  through  all  the  journey  of  this 
life,  and  at  last  through  the  opening  gates  of  heaven ! 
He  is  mighty  to  save.  Hear  it,  ye  dying  men  and  wom- 
en !  Though  your  sin  be  long,  and  black,  and  inexcus- 
able, and  outrageous,  the  very  moment  you  believe  I  will 
proclaim  pardon  —  quick,  full,  grand,  unconditional,  un- 
compromising, illimitable,  infinite.  Oh  the  grace  of  God! 
I  nm  overwhelmed  when  I  come  to  think  of  it.  Give  me 
a  thousand  ladders,  lashed  fast  to  each  other,  that  I  may 
scale  the  height.  Let  the  line  run  out  with  the  anchor 
until  all  the  cables  of  earth  are  exhausted,  that  we  may 
touch  the  depth.  Let  the  archangel  fly  in  circuit  of 
eternal  ages  in  trying  to  sweep  around  this  theme.  Oh 
the  grace  of  God !  It  is  so  high.  It  is  so  broad.  It  is 
so  deep.  Glory  be  to  my  God,  that  where  man's  oar 
gives  out,  God's  arm  begins!  Why  will  ye  carry  j^our 
sins  and  your  sorrows  any  longer  when  Christ  offers  to 
take  them?  Why  will  you  wrestle  down  your  fears 
when  this  moment  you  might  give  up  and  be  saved? 
Do  you  not  know  that  every  thing  is  ready? 


S26  DIFFICULT  ROWING. 

"  See,  Jesus  stands  with  open  armsj 
He  calls,  he  bids  you  come. 
Sin  holds  you  back,  and  fear  alarms ; 
But  still  there  yet  is  room. " 

Oh !  men  and  women,  bought  bj  the  blood  of  Jesus, 
how  can  I  give  you  up  ?  Will  you  turn  away  this  plea, 
as  you  have  turned  away  so  many  ?  Have  you  delibep 
ately  chosen  to  die?  Do  you  want  to  be  lost?  Do  you 
turn  your  back  on  heaven  because  you  do  not  want  to 
see  Christ,  nor  your  own  loved  ones  whom  he  has  taken 
into  his  bosom?  Can  not  some  of  these  fathers  and 
mothers  hear  the  voices  of  their  children  in  glory  calling 
to-night,  saying, 

"Steer  this  way,  father, 
Steer  straight  for  me ; 
Here  safe  in  heaven 
I  am  waiting  for  thee." 

Do  you  not  see  the  hands  of  mercy,  the  hands  of  loved 
ones,  let  down  now  from  the  skies,  beckoning  you  to  the 
pardoning  Jesus,  beckoning  you  up  to  heaven  and  to 
glory  ?  Can  it  be  that  it  is  all  in  vain  ?  Calvary  in  vain  ? 
Death -bed  warnings  in  vain?  Ministering  spirits  in 
vain?  The  opening  gates  of  heaven  in  vain  ?  The  im- 
portuning of  God's  eternal  Spirit  all  in  vain?  To  your 
knees,  oh  dying  soul]  before  it  be  too  late  to  pray.  I 
hear  the  creaking  of  the  closing  door  of  God's  mercy. 
To  some  of  you  the  last  chance  has  come.  The  tongue  in 
the  great  bell  begins  to  swing  for  the  death-knell  of  thy 
soul  immortal !  And  in  an  hour  in  which  ye  think  not 
your  disembodied  spirit  may  go  shrieking  out  toward 
the  throne  of  an  offended  God,  and — what  then  ?  Has 
not  God  been  calling  to  you,  my  dear  brother,  during  the 


DIFFICULT  ROWING.  827 

past  week?  In  the  shaking  down  of  fortunes,  has  he 
not  shown  you  the  uncertainty  of  this  world's  treasures? 
Do  you  not  feel  to-night  as  if  you  would  like  to  have 
God  and  Jesus,  and  all  the  precious  promises  of  his  Gos- 
pel ?  I  remember  that  after  the  great  crisis  of  1857,  when 
the  whole  land  was  rocked  with  commercial  sorrow,  the 
Spirit  of  God  descended,  and  there  were  two  hundred  and 
seventy  thousand  souls  in  one  year  who  found  the  peace 
of  Christ.  Oh,  I  would  that  the  rocking  in  New  York 
and  Brooklyn  to-day — the  commercial  rocking — might 
rouse  up  men  to  the  consideration  of  the  interests  of  their 
immortal  souls!  As  I  asked  you  this  morning,  I  ask 
3^ou  now,  "  What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the 
whole  world,  and  lose  his  soul  ?"  Come  back,  oh  wan- 
derer! I  do  not  ask  where  you  came  from  to-night. 
Though  you  may  have  come  from  places  of  sin,  I  shall 
not  be  partial  in  my  offer  of  salvation.  I  offer  it  to  ev- 
ery one  who  sits  before  me.  "Whosoever  will,  let  him 
come,"  and  let  him  come  now. 

Plenty  of  room  at  the  feast.  Jesus  has  the  ring  of  his 
love  all  ready  to  put  upon  your  hand.  Come  now  and 
sit  down,  ye  hungry  ones,  at  the  banquet.  Ye  who  are 
in  rags  of  sin,  take  the  robe  of  Christ.  Ye  who  are 
swamped  by  the  breakers  around  you,  cry  to  Christ  to 
pilot  you  into  smooth,  still  waters.  On  account  of  the 
peculiar  phase  of  the  subject,  I  have  drawn  my  illustra- 
tions, you  see,  chiefly,  to-night,  from  the  water.  I  re- 
member that  a  vessel  went  to  pieces  on  the  Bermudas 
a  great  many  years  ago.  It  had  a  vast  treasure  on  board. 
But  the  vessel  being  sunk,  no  effort  was  made  to  raise 
it.  After  many  years  had  passed,  a  company  of  advent- 
urers went  out  from  England,  and  after  a  long  voyage 

14*' 


828  DIFFICULT  EOWING. 

they  reached  the  place  where  the  vessel  was  said  to  have 
sunk.  Thej  got  into  a  small  boat  and  hovered  over 
the  place.  Then  the  divers  went  down,  and  they  broke 
through  what  looked  like  a  limestone  covering,  and  the 
treasures  rolled  out — what  was  found  afterward  to  be,  in 
our  money,  worth  one  million  five  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars, and  the  foundation  of  a  great  business  house.  At 
that  time  the  whole  world  rejoiced  ov^r  -  .-bat  was  called 
the  luck  of  these  adventurers.  Oh  ^,  e  who  have  been 
rowing  toward  the  shore,  and  have  not  been  able  to  reach 
it,  I  want  to  tell  you  to-night  that  your  boat  hovers  over 
infinite  treasure !  All  the  riches  of  God  are  at  your  feet. 
Treasures  that  never  fail,  and  crowns  that  never  grow 
dim.  Who  will  go  down  now  and  seek  them?  Who 
will  dive  for  the  pearl  of  great  price?  Who  will  be  pre- 
pared for  life,  for  death,  for  judgment,  for  the  long  eterni- 
ty? Many  who  hear  my  voice  hear  it  for  the  last  time, 
and  I  shall  meet  them  not  again  until  the  heavens  be  roll- 
ed up  as  a  scroll,  and  the  books  be  open.  Flee  the  wrath 
to  come !  The  Lord  help  you  !  I  am  clear  of  the  blood 
of  souls.  See  two  hands  of  blood  stretched  out  toward 
thy  dying  soul,  as  Jesus  says,  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye 
that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest." 


THE  BURNING   OF  THE  BROOKLYN  TABEIINACL.J^.   §29 


•fHE  BUENING  OF  THE  BROOKLYN  TABER- 
NACLE. 

(.ANNIVERSARY  DISCOURSE.) 

"He  shall  baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire." — Mat- 
thew iii.,  11. 

MEN  had  better  listen  when  God  speaks  in  wave,  or 
wind,  or  storm,  or  earthquake,  or  conflagration. 
God  spoke  to  Job  out  of  the  hurricane;  to  Lisbon,  out 
of  the  earthquake;  to  both  continents  by  the  burning  of 
the  Austria  in  mid-ocean,  the  driving  against  Mars  Head 
of  the  Atlantic^  the  awful  going  down  of  the  Ville  du 
Havre;  while  he  spoke  to  our  own  congregation  last 
December,  through  the  burning  of  the  Brooklyn  Taber- 
nacle. God's  most  vehement  utterances  are  in  flames  of 
fire.  The  most  tremendous  lesson  he  ever  gave  to  New 
York  was  in  the  conflagration  of  1835 ;  to  Chicago,  in 
the  conflagration  of  1871 ;  to  Boston,  in  the  conflagra- 
tion of  1872 ;  to  our  own  congregation,  in  the  fiery 
downfall  of  our  beloved  place  of  worship. 

The  day  was  full  of  merciless  frost.  Things  cracked 
with  the  cold.  Man  and  beast  felt  it  was  a  day  to  have 
warm  shelter.  The  bell  had  rung  for  religious  service, 
and  the  families  of  our  congregation  had  started  for  the 
accustomed  place  of  worship,  some  with  thanksgivings 
that  they  must  needs  offer,  some  with  sorrows  that  they 
must  needs  have  healed,  all  of  them  with  souls  that 
needed   more   preparation    for   the  judgment- day.     A 


830   THE  BUliXING   OF  THE  BROOKLYN  TABERNACLE. 

black  flag  of  smoke  against  the  sky,  and  the  rush  of  the 
hose-carriages  made  us  ask,  "Where  is  it?  what  ward? 
Horrible  to  be  turned  out  of  house  and  home  on  such  a 
day  as  this  1"  Some  one  says,  "  It  is  in  the  direction  of 
the  Tabernacle.  Ay,  it  is  the  church !"  and  there  is  a 
rush  past  the  streets  crying,  "Fire!  fire!"  And  instead 
of  sitting  down  in  placid  worship  that  day,  our  congre- 
gation, joined  by  other  congregations  on  the  streets, 
stood  in  the  presence  of  God  before  the  altar  of  a  burn- 
ing church.  Many  wrung  their  hands  and  thought  of 
the  sacred  scenes  in  which  there  they  had  mingled — the 
baptisms,  the  weddings,  the  burials,  the  communion-days, 
the  scenes  of  revival,  the  deliverances,  and  the  victories. 
All  efforts  at  extinguishment  seemed  to  fail.  The  great 
organ,  as  the  flames  roared  through  its  pipes,  played  its 
own  rea^uiem,  and  the  walls  came  down  with  a  crash  that 
made  the  earth  tremble.  Some  saw  in  that  nothing  but 
unmitigated  disaster,  while  others  of  us  heard  the  voice 
of  God  as  from  heaven,  sounding  through  the  crackling 
thunder  of  that  awful  day,  saying,  "  He  shall  baptize  you 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire!"  The  Lord  has  ful- 
filled the  prophecy.  That  wdiich  threatened  to  be  entire 
extinguishment  has  really  been  an  unmistakable  bene- 
diction. 

Through  many  self-denials,  and  through  kindness  and 
practical  help  on  all  sides,  our  building  hastens  toward 
completion.  Through  a  panic  that  has  staggered  the 
land,  and  made  some  of  the  noblest  enterprises  come  to 
a  dead  halt,  the  work  has  gone  gradually  but  surely  on, 
and  we  shall  soon  have  a  house  to  dedicate  to  the  Lord, 
a  house  marvelous  for  capacity,  and  for  beauty,  and  for 
strength,  in  which  men  and  women  for  many  genera- 


TEE  BURNING   OF  THE  BROOKLYN  TABERNACLE.  331 

tloiis  will  assemble  to  worship  God.  Added  to  that, 
while  we  were  in  the  wilderness,  the  Lord  has  descended 
mightily  in  a  pentecostal  blessing,  and  a  great  multitude 
have  cried  out  after  God,  and  there  has  been  a  rush  foi 
the  cross,  and  a  wailing  over  sin,  and  a  jubilant  shout 
over  pardon  such  as  you  and  I  have  never  before  heard. 
"  Oh,  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  for  he  is  good,  for  his 
mercy  endureth  forever!"  Out  of  darkness  he  brings 
light.  Out  of  trouble  he  brings  assurance.  Out  of  de- 
feat he  brings  victory.  Out  of  smoking,  crackling,  roar- 
ing, devastating  calamity,  "  he  baptizes  us  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  with  fire." 

I  propose  this  morning,  so  far  as  God  may  help  me, 
to  draw  out  the  analogy  between  these  two  baptisms — 
the  baptism  of  last  December  and  the  baptism  of  this 
December. 

First,  I  remark  they  were  both  sudden.  We  all  felt 
that  whatever  else  might  go  down,  that  Tabernacle  never 
could.  We  thought  it  fire-proof  When  on  that  cold 
December  day  that  building  was  in  flames,  there  was  on 
every  countenance  in  the  street  amazement.  Sudden  as 
sudden  could  be !  So  has  it  been  with  the  other  bap- 
tism—  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  spiritual 
fire  broke  out  here  on  Sabbath  night,  and,  while  hun- 
dreds were  rising  and  asking  for  prayers,  there  was  a 
look  of  amazement  on  the  faces  of  the  people,  and  some 
aged  Christians  wondered  what  it  all  meant.  The  first 
baptism — suddenly.  The  next  baptism — suddenly.  So 
nearly  always  does  the  Spirit  come.  So  it  came  when 
Jonathan  Edwards  preached  in  Northampton,  and  John 
Livingstone  in  Scotland,  and  William  Tennant  preached 
in  Monmouthj  and  Dr.  Finlay  preached  in  Baskinridge, 


882   THE  BURNING   OF  THE  BROOKLYN  TABERNACLE. 

and  JSTettleton,  and  Daniel  Baker,  and  Truman  Osborne, 
and  Mr.  Earle,  and  Edward  Payson  HanQinond  preached 
everywhere.  Almost  always  the  blessing  came  sudden- 
ly. It  has  been  especially  so  in  our  midst.  In  a  night 
family  altars  have  been  reared  in  houses  where  before 
there  was  no  prayer;  infidels  persuaded  of  the  truth  of 
Christianity  in  five  minutes ;  children  going  at  three 
o'clock  to  the  Sabbath-schools  unsaved  coming  home 
Christians  at  five  o'clock;  men  coming  into  these  serv- 
ices to  make  merry  with  the  anxiety  of  those  w^ho  were 
seeking  after  God,  themselves  at  the  close  rising  for 
prayer;  and  many  of  the  old  passages  of  Scripture  that 
seemed  to  lie  dormant  in  the  hearts  of  God's  people  have 
flashed  up  with  unwonted  and  overwhelming  power. 

Whitefield  was  once  preaching  on  Blackheath,  and  a 
man  and  his  wife  coming  from  market  saw  the  crowd 
and  went  up  to  hear.  Whitefield  was  saying  something 
about  what  happened  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  and 
the  man  said  to  his  wife,  "Come,  Mary,  we  will  not  stop 
any  longer.  He  is  talking  about  something  that  took 
place  more  than  eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  What's 
that  to  us?"  But  they  were  fascinated.  They  could 
not  get  away.  The  truth  of  God  came  to  their  hearts. 
When  they  were  home,  they  took  down  the  Bible  and 
said,  "Is  it  possible  that  these  old  truths  have  been  here 
so  long  and  we  have  not  known  it  ?"  Ah  !  it  was  in  the 
flash  of  God's  Spirit  on  Blackheath  that  they  were  saved 
—  the  Spirit  coming  mightil}^,  and  suddenly,  and  over- 
whelmingly upon  them.  So  it  was  that  God's  Spirit 
came  to  Andrew  Fuller,  and  James  Hervey,  and  the  Earl 
of  Eochester,  and  Bishop  Latimer  —  suddenly.  So  it 
came  to  multitudes  in  this  assemblage,  both  the  baptism 


THE  BURNING  OF  THE  BROOKLYN  TABERNACLE.   'S'6'6 

of  fire  and  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  A  father  was 
enraged  whose  child  was  interested  in  religious  things 
many  years  ago,  because  she  would  go  to  the  place  of 
worship.  He  forbade  her  going;  but  she  slipped  out 
when  he  was  not  watching.  He  said,  "There  now,  she 
has  gone  to  the  meeting;"  and  he  went  to  the  meeting. 
She  was  kneeling  at  the  altar.  He  put  his  arms  around 
her  with  indignation  to  carry  her  out,  when  she  cried, 
''  Father,  you  are  too  late ;  I  have  found  Jesus  1"  And 
so  there  have  been  those  among  us  who  would  like  to 
have  kept  Christ  out  of  their  families,  but  they  came  not 
soon  enough  to  succeed.  It  is  too  late,  father;  your 
child  has  already  found  Jesus. 

But  I  remark  again,  the  analogy  between  these  two 
baptisms  —  the  baptism  of  fire  and  the  baptism  of  the 
Hol}^  Ghost — is  in  the  fact  that  they  were  both  irresistible. 
IN'otwithstanding  all  our  boasted  machinery  and  organi- 
zation for  putting  out  fires,  the  efforts  that  were  made  did 
not  repulse  the  flames  last  December  one  single  instant. 
Having  begun,  they  kept  on  more  and  more  triumphantly, 
clapping  their  hands  over  the  destroyed  building.  There 
was  a  great  sound  of  fire-trumpets  and  brave  men  walk- 
ing on  hot  walls;  but  the  flames  were  balked  not  an 
instant.  So  it  has  been  with  the  Holy  Spirit  moving 
through  the  hearts  of  this  people.  Why,  there  have 
been  aged  men  who  for  forty  or  fifty  years  resisted  the 
truth  who  have  surrendered!  There  have  been  men 
here  who  have  sworn  that  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ 
should  never  come  into  their  households;  they  and  their 
children  kneel  now  at  the  same  altar.  We  have  all  felt 
it.  Formalists  trying  to  put  out  the  spiritual  fire  have 
only  had  their  trouble  for  their  pains.     It  has  gone  on. 


83-1   THE  BURNING   OF  THE  BROOKLYN  TABERNACLE. 

It  is  going  on  now,  conquering  pride,  and  worldliness,  and 
sin ;  and  I  pray  it  may  keep  on  until  it  has  swept  every- 
thing before  it,  and  there  shall  be  in  every  household  an 
altar,  and  in  every  heart  a  throne  for  the  blessed  Jesus. 
Go  on,  great  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  with  fire! 

In  the  days  of  revival  in  England,  when  John  Wes- 
ley was  preaching,  everywhere  scoffers  would  mimic  his 
preaching,  and  one  man  thought  it  was  very  smart  to 
gather  an  audience,  and  stand  up  with  a  Bible,  and  take 
John  Wesley's  favorite  text,  "  Except  ye  repent,  ye  shall 
all  likewise  perish  ;"  and  he  preached — he,  the  scoffer — to 
an  audience  of  scoffers,  until  the  truth  rebounded  on  his 
own  heart  and  he  cried  for  mercy,  and  the  truth  over- 
whelmed the  hearts  of  his  hearers,  and  they  cried  for 
mercy,  and  instead  of  being  an  audience  of  mockers  it 
became  an  audience  of  seekers.  Oh !  this  is  the  power 
of  God,  this  is  the  wisdom  of  God  unto  salvation.  Both 
baptisms — the  one  of  fire  and  the  one  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
— irresistible. 

I  remark  again,  that  I  find  the  analogy  in  the  fact  that 
both  baptisms  ivere  consuming.  Did  you  ever  see  any 
more  thorough  work  than  was  done  by  that  fire  last  De- 
cember ?  The  strongest  beams  turned  to  ashes.  The  iron 
cracked,  curled  up,  and  was  destroyed.  The  work  of  the 
flames  consummate.  So  it  has  been  with  the  Holy  Ghost :, 
it  has  been  a  consuming  fire  amidst  the  sins  and  the  hab- 
its of  those  who  despise  God.  How  many  have  had  their 
transgressions  utterly  consumed !  Some  who  were  vic- 
tims of  bad  habits  have  had  their  chains  broken  off. 
Down  at  the  club-room  and  down  at  the  saloon,  they 
wonder  why  these  people  do  not  come  any  more.  Ah ! 
instead  of  the  laughter  of  fools,  which  is  like  the  crack- 


THE  BURNING   OF  THE  BROOKLYN  TABERNACLE.    335 

ling  of  thorns  under  a  pot,  they  have  come  to  that  relig- 
ion which  is  jo}^  here  and  hosanna  forever;  and  after  a 
man  has  set  down  once  at  the  Lord's  banquet,  he  has  no 
more  patience  with  the  swine's  diet.  When  the  revival, 
two  years  ago,  swept  through  the  OAiy  of  Lawrence,  at 
the  West,  it  was  stated  to  be  a  fact  that  the  gin  saloons 
lost  fifty  per  cent,  of  their  business.  So  may  it  always 
be — the  Spirit  of  God  consuming  the  dissipations  of  men  ! 
That  Spirit  has  gone  through  the  hearts  and  lives  of  many 
who  sit  before  me,  like  fire  through  stubble.  They  have 
been  swept  by  the  purifying  flames.  Both  baptisms  have 
been  consuming. 

Again,  I  find  an  analogy  in  the  two  baptisms,  because 
they  both  loere  melting.  If  you  examined  the  bars  and 
bolts,  and  plumbing  work  of  the  Tabernacle  after  it  went 
down,  you  know  it  was  a  melting  process.  The  things 
that  seemed  to  have  no  relation  to  each  other  adjoined — 
flowed  together.  So  it  has  been  with  the  Spirit  of  God, 
melting  down  all  asperities  and  unbrotherliness.  Heart 
has  flowed  out  toward  heart.  It  has  been  a  melting  proc- 
ess. If  there  is  any  thing  that  our  city  churches  need, 
it  is  melting.  There  are  a  thousand  icicles  hanging  to 
the  eaves  of  our  city  churches  where  there  are  two  icicles 
hanging  to  the  eaves  of  the  country  churches.  We  are 
so  afraid  we  will  get  acquainted  with  somebody  that  will 
not  do  us  honor!  The  great  want  of  the  Church  to-day 
is  a  thaw — a  thaw.  Oh,  that  the  Lord  God  would  rise 
up  and  melt  down  the  freezing  conventionalities  of  his 
Church  !  I  think  that  that  fire  of  last  December  and 
this  spiritual  fire  of  this  December  have  melted  us  un- 
til we  flow  together  in  Christian  sympathy,  and  har- 
mony, and  love,  and  that  we  can  now  join  hands  in  one 


336  THE  BURNING   OF  THE  BROOKLYN  TABEBNACLB-'. 

great  family  circle  as  a  cliurch,  and  sing  as  we  never 
sang  before: 

"Before  our  Father's  throne 
We  pour  our  ardent  prayers ; 
Our  fears,  our  hopes,  our  aims  are  one, 
Our  comforts  and  our  cares. 

"The  glorious  hope  revives 
Our  courage  by  the  way, 
While  each  in  expectation  lives, 
And  longs  to  see  the  day." 

But  I  have,  on  this  anniversary  of  the  burning  of  the 
Brooklyn  Tabernacle,  to  say  that  we  have  not,  as  a 
church,  yet  entered  upon  the  mission  for  which  God 
has  baptized  us — first  with  fire,  and  now  with  the  Holy 
Ghost.  We  need  to  put  forth  on  a  more  earnest  mission 
than  we  have  ever  entered  upon.  God  evidently  does 
not  intend  us  for  smooth  work.  He  has  rocked  us  in  a 
very  rough  cradle.  Ofttimes  has  this  church  been  as- 
saulted in  various  ways,  and  if  there  are  any  who  expect 
to  have  a  smooth  time  and  an  easy  pathway,  they  had 
better  wake  up  from  the  delusion  and  get  out  of  this 
church.  If  God  baptized  us  with  fire,  it  is  because  he 
means  to  fit  us  for  hot  and  tremendous  work.  If  you  are 
afraid  of  fixtigue,  and  afraid  of  persecution,  and  afraid  of 
opposition,  you  had  better  not  train  in  this  battalion,  for 
I  have  no  quiet  encampment  to  offer  you  by  still  waters; 
but  rather  to  tell  you  of  a  forced  march,  hard  fighting, 
and  a  bayonet  charge.  I  believe  God  means  us  to  go 
forth  and  proclaim  an  earnest,  uncompromising,  out  and 
out,  straightforward,  revolutionary,  old-fashioned  Gospel, 
that  believes  in  repentance  and  regeneration,  in  glory 
and  in  perdition.      But,  my  friends,  in  order  to  enter 


THE  BUENING   OF  THE  BUOOKLYX  TABEMNACLE.   337 

upon  that  work  we  want  still  more  vigorous  baptism 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  We  want  that  Spirit  to  come  down 
in  all  our  families  with  his  arousing,  melting,  illumi- 
nating, saving  presence;  and  I  believe  that  then  the  in- 
fluences which  we  have  already  had  in  the  way  of  a 
blessing  will  be  only  as  a  spark  compared  with  the  great 
conflagration  of  religious  enthusiasm  and  zeal  we  shall 
feel  here. 

But,  my  friends,  when  is  this  work  to  begin  ?  If  you,  as 
a  private  Christian,  and  I,  as  a  minister  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  have  some  work  to  do,  when  shall  we  begin  it? 
Kow,  and  here.  Oh,  men  and  women  of  the  world !  do 
you  not  feel  to-day  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost?  Is 
there  not  something  in  the  passing  of  the  seasons,  some- 
thing in  this  last  Sabbath  of  the  year,  something  in  the 
tramp  of  your  pulses,  something  in  the  solemn  surround- 
ings of  this  morning,  something  in  the  wave  of  influence 
that  comes  in  upon  your  soul,  to  make  you  realize  that 
this  may  be  your  last  chance  for  heaven  ?  Miss  it  now, 
and  you  miss  it  forever.  Do  you  not  see  how  swiftly 
your  Sabbaths  are  going?  Do  you  not  see  how  the 
years  of  your  life  are  rushing  into  a  great  eternity? 
The  year  1873  has  already  landed  thousands  and  tens 
of  thousands  of  souls  beyond  the  reach  of  all  mercy. 
The  book  with  twelve  chapters  made  up  of  the  twelve 
months  is  about  finished  by  the  recording  angel,  and  he 
has  his  hands  on  the  lids  of  that  book,  about  to  close  it 
for  the  last  reckoning.  Oh,  my  hearer  !  if  you  turn  your 
back  upon  your  best  interests,  if  your  final  opportunity 
for  redemption  disappear,  if  the  rushing  wing  that  passes 
us  is  the  wing  of  the  retreating  spirit,  if  this  be  the  mo- 
ment of  awful  calamity — the  downfall  of  an  immortal 


338    THE  BURNING   OF  THE  BROOKLYN  TABERNACLE. 

soul — then  you  will  see  a  conflagration  compared  with 
which  that  of  last  December  was  child's  play.  It  will  be 
when  the  Lord  shall  be  revealed  from  heaven  with  flam- 
ing fire,  to  take  vengeance  upon  those  who  know  not 
God  and  obey  not  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ! 
From  that  conflagration  of  last  December  we  shall  re- 
cover; but  the  soul  that  goes  down  into  that  final  confla- 
gration shall  never  recuperate.  That  fire  in  December  last 
continued  only  three  or  four  hours,  and  on  the  following 
day  even  the  smoke  ceased  to  curl  up  in  the  frosty  air ; 
but  that  soul  that  rejects  Christ  shall  go  into  a  fire  that 
shall  never  be  quenched,  "  and  the  smoke  of  its  torment 
ascendeth  up  forever  and  forever."  May  God  Almighty 
through  Jesus  Christ  keep  us  out  of  that !  Whatever 
misfortune  and  disaster  may  come  upon  us  in  this  world, 
let  it  come ;  but  God  forbid  that  any  of  us  should  lose 
heaven !  We  can  not  afford  to  lose  our  soul.  Save 
that,  we  have  saved  every  thing.  Lose  that,  we  have 
lost  every  thing.  Instead  of  the  baptism  that  consumes, 
oh  that  we  might  this  morning,  penitently,  believingly, 
prayerfully,  joyfully  receive  the  baptism  that  saves!  I 
suppose  that  some  of  you  know  there  were  persons  who 
stood  in  the  presence  of  that  burning  church  last  De- 
cember who  for  the  first  time  sought  after  God.  They 
said  then  to  themselves ;  indeed  they  arose  in  the  prayer- 
meetings  afterward,  and  said  it:  "When  I  stood  in  the 
presence  of  that  building,  I  was  reminded  as  never  before 
that  there  was  nothing  fire-proof,  that  there  was  nothing 
on  earth  certain,  and  there  and  then,  in  the  presence  of 
that  devastation  and  ruin,  I  resolved  that  I  would  be  the 
Lord's,  and  I  have  kept  my  promise.  I  have  given  my 
heart  to  Jesus."     Oh  !  if  that  was  the  result  in  some  souls 


THE  BURNING   OF  THE  BROOKLYN  TABERNACLE.   339 

on  that  cold  Sabbath  day,  now,  when  this  morning  I  re- 
hearse the  scene,  shall  it  not  be,  under  God's  Spirit,  the 
means  of  bringing  some  of  you  to  Christ?  You  have 
tried  this  world.  You  have  been  drinking  out  of  the 
fountains  of  its  pleasure.  You  have  tried  in  January, 
February,  March,  April,  May,  June,  Jul}^,  August,  Sep- 
tember, October,  November,  and  now  nearly  to  the  close 
of  December,  and  tell  me  frankly,  oh  man  of  the  world! 
is  there  any  thing  this  side  Christ  and  heaven  that  can 
give  solace,  and  peace,  and  contentment  to  your  immor- 
tal nature?  No;  you  know  there  is  nothing.  You 
have  tried  the  world,  and  it  has  failed  you.  It  is  a  cheat- 
ing world.  It  is  a  lying  world.  It  is  a  dying  world. 
Oh,  seek  after  God  to-day,  and  be  at  peace  with  him  I 


340  THE  bhiohtest  of  bats. 


THE  BRIGHTEST   OF  DAYS. 

"And  call  the  Sabbath  a  delight." — Isaiah  Iviii.,  13. 

THERE  is  an  element  of  gloom  striking  througli  all 
false  religions.  Paganism  is  a  brood  of  horrors. 
The  god  of  Confucius  frowned  upon  its  victims  with 
blind  fate.  Moliammedanism  promises  nothing  to  those 
exhausted  with  sin  in  this  world  but  an  eternity  of  the 
same  passional  indulgences.  The  papacy  prostrates  its 
devotees  with  fastings  and  kneelings  and  merciless  tax- 
ation of  the  poor  man's  wages,  and  tugs  until  it  sweats, 
from  January  to  December,  in  trying  to  pull  its  dead 
priests  and  archbishops  out  of  purgatory.  But  God  in- 
tended that  our  religion  should  have  the  grand  charac- 
teristic of  cheerfulness.  St.  Paul  struck  the  key-note 
when  he  said,  "Rejoice  evermore;  and  again  I  say,  re- 
joice." This  religion  has  no  spikes  for  the  feet;  it  has 
no  hooks  for  the  shoulder;  it  has  no  long  pilgrimages  to 
take;  it  has  no  funeral-pyres  upon  which  to  leap;  it  has 
no  Juggernauts  before  which  to  fall.  Its  good  cheer  is 
symbolized  in  the  Bible  by  the  brightness  of  waters,  and 
the  redolence  of  lilies,  and  the  sweetness  of  music,  and 
the  hilarities  of  a  banquet.  A  choir  of  seraphim  chant- 
ed at  its  induction,  and  pealing  trumpet,  and  waving 
palm,  and  flapping  wing  of  archangel  are  to  celebrate  its 
triumphs.  It  began  its  chief  mission  with  the  shout, 
"Glory  to  God  in   the  highest!"  and   it  will  close  its 


THE  BRIGHTEST  OF  DAYS.  841 

earthly  mission  with  the  ascription,  "Hallelujah,  for  the 
Lord  God  omnipotent  reigneth  !" 

But  men  have  said  that  our  religion  is  not  cheerful, 
because  we  have  such  a  doleful  Sabbath.  Thev  say, 
"You  can  have  your  religious  assemblages,  and  your 
long  faces,  and  your  sniffling  cant,  and  your  psalm-books, 
and  your  Bibles.  Give  us  the  Sunday  excursion,  and 
the  horse-race,  and  the  convivial  laughter.  We  have  so 
much  joy  that  we  want  to  spread  it  all  over  the  seven 
days  of  the  week,  and  you  shall  not  have  one  of  our 
days  of  worldly  satisfaction  for  religious  dolefulness."  I 
want  to  show  these  men — if  there  are  any  such  in  the 
house  this  morning — that  they  are  under  a  great  delu- 
sion, and  that  God  intended  the  fifty-two  Sundays  of  the 
year  to  be  hung  up  like  bells  in  a  tower,  beating  a  per- 
petual chime  of  joy  and  glory  and  salvation  and  heaven  ; 
for  I  want  you  to  carry  out  the  idea  of  the  text,  "and 
call  the  Sabbath  a  delight." 

I  remark,  in  the  first  place,  we  are  to  find  in  this  day 
the  joy  of  healthy  repose.  In  this  democratic  country  we 
all  have  to  work  —  some  with  hand,  some  with  brain, 
some  with  foot.  If  there  is  in  all  this  house  a  hand  that 
has  not,  during  the  past  year,  been  stretched  forth  to 
some  kind  of  toil,  let  it  be  lifted.  Not  one,  not  one. 
You  sell  the  goods.  You  teach  the  school.  You  doctor 
in  the  sick-room.  You  practice  at  the  bar.  You  edit  a 
newspaper.  You  tan  the  hides.  You  preach  the  Gospel. 
You  mend  the  shoes.  You  sit  at  the  shuttle.  You  carry 
the  hod  of  bricks  up  the  ladder  on  the  wall.  And  tlie 
one  occupation  is  as  honorable  as  the  other,  provided  God 
calls  you  to  it.  I  care  not  what  you  do,  if  you  only  do 
it  well.     But  when  Saturday  night  comes,  you  are  jaded 


34.2  THE  BRIGHTEST  OF  DAYS. 

and  worn.  The  hand  can  not  so  skillfully  manufacture; 
the  eye  can  not  see  as  well ;  the  brain  is  not  so  clear;  the 
judgment  is  not  so  well  balanced.  A  prominent  manufact- 
urer told  me  tliat  he  could  see  a  difference  between  the 
goods  which  went  out  of  his  establishment  on  Saturday 
from  the  goods  that  went  out  on  Monday.  He  said,  "  They 
were  very  different  indeed.  Those  that  were  made  in 
the  former  part  of  the  week,  because  of  the  rest  that  had 
been  previously  given,  were  better  than  those  that  were 
made  in  the  latter  part  of  the  week,  when  the  men  were 
tired  out."  The  Sabbath  comes,  and  it  bathes  the  sore- 
ness from  the  limbs,  quiets  the  agitated  brain,  and  puts 
out  the  fires  of  anxiety  that  have  been  burning  all  the 
week.  Our  bodies  are  seven-day  clocks,  and  unless  on 
the  seventh  day  they  are  wound  up,  they  run  down  into 
the  grave.  The  Sabbath  was  intended  as  a  savings- 
bank  ;  into  it  we  are  to  gather  the  resources  upon  which 
we  are  to  draw  all  the  week.  That  man  who  breaks  the 
Sabbath  robs  his  own  nerve,  his  own  muscle,  his  own 
brain,  his  own  bones.  He  dips  up  the  wine  of  his  own 
life,  and  throws  it  away.  He  who  breaks  the  Lord's  day 
gives  a  mortgage  to  disease  and  death  upon  his  entire 
physical  estate,  and  at  the  most  unexpected  moment  that 
mortgage  will  be  foreclosed,  and  the  soul  ejected  from  the 
premises.  Every  gland,  and  pore,  and  cell,  and  finger- 
nail demands  the  seventh  day  for  repose.  The  respira- 
tion of  the  lungs,  the  throb  of  the  pulse  in  the  wrist,  the 
motion  of  the  bone  in  its  socket  declare,  "Eemember  the 
Sabbath-day,  to  keep  it  holy."  There  are  thousands  of 
men  who  have  had  their  lives  dashed  out  against  the 
golden  gates  of  the  Sabbath.  A  prominent  London  mer- 
chant testifies  that  thirty  years  ago  he  went  to  London. 


THE  BMIQHTEST  OF  DA  YS.  343 

He  says,  ^'  I  have  during  that  time  watched  minutely, 
and  1  have  noticed  that  the  men  who  went  to  business  on 
the  Lord's  day,  or  opened  their  counting-houses,  have, 
without  a  single  exception,  come  to  failure."  A  promi- 
nent Christian  merchant  in  Boston  says,  "I  find  it  don't 
pay  to  work  on  Sunday.  When  I  was  a  boy,  I  noticed 
cut  on  Long  Wharf  there  were  merchants  who  loaded 
their  vessels  on  the  Sabbath-day,  keeping  their  men  busy 
from  morning  till  night,  and  it  is  my  observation  that 
they  themselves  came  to  nothing — these  merchants — and 
their  children  came  to  nothing.  It  doesn't  pay,"  he 
says,  "  to  work  on  the  Sabbath." 

I  appeal  to  your  own  observation.  Where  are  the 
men  who  twenty  years  ago  were  Sabbath-breakers,  and 
who  have  been  Sabbath-breakers  ever  since?  Without 
a  single  exception,  you  will  tell  me,  they  have  come 
either  to  financial  or  to  moral  beggary.  I  defy  you  to 
point  out  a  single  exception,  and  you  can  take  the  whole 
world  for  your  field.  It  has  either  been  a  financial  or 
moral  defalcation  in  every  instance.  Six  hundred  and 
forty  physicians  in  London  petition  Parliament,  saying: 
"  We  must  have  the  Sabbath  obeyed.  We  can  not  have 
health  in  this  city  and  in  this  nation  unless  the  Sabbath 
is  observed."  Those  in  our  own  country  have  given 
evidence  on  the  same  side.  The  man  who  takes  down 
the  shutters  of  his  store  on  the  Sabbath  takes  down  the 
curse  of  Almighty  God.  That  farmer  who  cultures  his 
ground  on  the  Sabbath-day  raises  a  crop  of  neuralgia, 
and  of  consumption,  and  of  death.  A  farmer  said,  "  I 
defy  your  Christian  Sabbath.  I  will  raise  a  Sunday 
crop."  So  he  went  to  work  and  plowed  the  ground  on 
Sunday,  and  harrowed  it  on  Sunday,  and  he  planted  corn 

15 


844  THE  BRIGHTEST  OF  DAYS. 

on  Sunday,  and  he  reaped  the  corn  on  Sunday,  and  he 
gathered  it  into  the  barn  on  Sunday.  "  There,"  he  says, 
"I  have  proved  to  you  that  all  this  idea  about  a  fatali- 
ty accompanying  Sabbath  work  is  a  perfect  sham.  My 
crop  is  garnered,  and  all  is  well."  But  before  many 
weeks  passed  the  Lord  God  struck  that  barn  with  his 
lightnings,  and  away  went  the  Sunday  crop. 

So  great  is  the  moral  depression  coming  upon  those 
who  toil  upon  the  Sabbath-day,  that  you  may  have  no- 
ticed (if  you  have  not,  I  call  your  attention  to  the  fact) 
that  in  cases  where  the  public  interest  demands  Sabbath 
toil  the  moral  depression  is  so  great  that  there  are  but 
very  few  who  can  stand  it.  For  instance,  the  police  serv- 
ice, without  which  not  one  of  our  houses  would  be  safe 
— there  are  very  few  who  can  stand  the  pressure  and 
temptation  of  it.  In  London,  where  there  are  five  thou- 
sand policemen,  the  statistic  is  given  that  in  one  year 
nine  hundred  and  twenty-one  of  that  five  thousand  were 
dismissed,  five  hundred  and  twenty -three  were  sus- 
pended, and  two  thousand  four  hundred  and  ninety-two 
were  fined.  Now,  if  the  moral  depression  be  so  great  in 
occupations  that  are  positively  necessary  for  the  peace 
and  prosperity  of  society,  I  ask  you  what  must  be  the 
moral  depression  in  those  cases  where  there  is  no  neces- 
sity for  Sabbath  work,  and  where  a  man  chooses  woi-ld- 
ly  business  on  the  Lord's  day  just  because  he  likes  it,  or 
wants  to  add  to  his  emoluments?  During  the  last  war, 
it  was  found  out  that  those  public  works  which  paused 
on  the  seventh  day  turned  out  more  war  material  than 
those  which  worked  all  the  seven  days.  Mr.  Bagnall,  a 
prominent  iron  merchant,  gives  this  testimon}^:  "1  find 
we  have  fewer  accidents  in  our  establishment  and  fewer 


THE  BRIGHTEST  OF  DAYS.  345 

interruptions,  now  we  observe  the  Lord's  day ;  and  at  the 
close  of  the  year,  now  that  we  keep  the  Sabbath,  I  find 
we  turn  out  more  iron  and  have  larger  profits  than  any 
year  when  we  worked  all  the  seven  days."  The  fact  is, 
Sabbath-made  ropes  will  break,  and  Sabbath-made  shoes 
will  leak,  and  Sabbath-made  coats  will  rip,  and  Sabbath- 
made  muskets  will  miss  fire,  and  Sabbath  occupations  will 
be  blasted.  A  gentleman  said,  "I  invented  a  shuttle  on 
the  Lord's  day.  I  was  very  busy,  so  I  made  the  model 
of  that  new  shuttle  on  the  Lord's  day.  So  very  busy 
was  I  during  the  week  that  I  had  to  occupy  many  Sab- 
baths. It  was  a  great  success.  I  enlarged  my  buildings; 
I  built  new  factories,  and  made  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  dollars ;  but  I  have  to  tell  you  that  all  the  result  of 
that  work  on  the  Sabbath  has  been  to  me  ruin.  I  en- 
larged my  buildings,  I  made  a  great  many  thousands 
of  dollars,  but  I  have  lost  all,  and  I  charge  it  to  the  fixct 
of  that  Sunday  shuttle."  I  will  place  in  two  companies 
the  men  in  this  community  who  break  the  Sabbath  and 
the  men  who  keep  it,  and  then  I  ask  you  who  are  the 
best  friends  of  society?  Who  are  the  best  friends  of 
morals?  Who  have  the  best  prospects  for  this  world? 
Who  have  the  best  for  the  world  that  is  to  come? 

Sabbath  morning  comes  in  the  household.  I  suppose 
that  the  mere  philosopher  would  say  that  the  Sabbath 
light  comes  in  a  wave  current, just  like  any  other  light; 
but  it  does  not  seem  so  to  me.  It  seems  as  if  it  touched 
the  ej^elids  more  gently,  and  threw  a  brighter  glow  on 
the  mantel  ornaments,  and  cast  a  better  cheerfulness  on 
the  faces  of  the  children,  and  threw  a  supernatural  glory 
over  the  old  family  Bible.  Hail!  Sabbath  light!  We 
rejoice  in  it.     Eest  comes  in  through  the  window,  or  it 


^46  ^IIE  BRIGHTEST  OF  DAYS. 

leaps  up  from  the  fire,  or  it  rolls  out  in  the  old  arm-chair, 
or  it  catches  up  the  body  into  ecstasy,  and  swings  open 
before  the  soul  the  twelve  gates  which  are  twelve  pearls. 
The  bar  of  the  unopened  warehouse,  the  hinges  of  the 
unfastened  store  -  window,  the  quiet  of  the  commercial 
warehouse  seem  to  say,  "  This  is  the  day  the  Lord  hath 
made."  Rest  for  the  sewing-woman,  with  weary  hands, 
and  aching  side,  and  sick  heart.  Rest  for  the  overtasked 
workman  in  the  mine,  or  out  on  the  wall,  or  in  the  swel- 
tering factory.  Hang  up  the  plane,  drop  the  adze,  slip 
the  band  from  the  wheel,  put  out  the  fire.  Rest  for  the 
body,  for  the  mind,  and  for  the  soul. 

"Welcome,  sweet  day  of  rest, 
That  saw  the  Lord  arise ; 
Welcome  to  this  reviving  breast, 
And  these  rejoicing  eyes." 

Again  I  remark,  we  ought  to  have  in  the  Sabbath  the 
joy  of  domestic  reunion  and  consecration.  There  are  some 
very  good  parents  who  have  the  faculty  of  making  the 
Sabbath  a  great  gloom.  Their  children  run  up  against 
the  wall  of  parental  lugubriousness  on  that  day.  They 
are  sorry  when  Sunday  comes,  and  glad  when  it  goes 
away.  They  think  of  every  thing  bad  on  that  day.  It 
is  the  worst  day  to  them,  really,  in  all  the  week.  There 
are  persons  who,  because  they  w^ere  brought  up  in  Chris- 
tian fiimilies  where  there  w^ere  wrong  notions  about  the 
Sabbath,  have  gone  out  into  dissipation  and  will  be  lost. 
A  man  said  to  me,  "  I  have  a  perfect  disgust  for  the  Sab- 
bath-day. I  never  saw  my  father  smile  on  Sunday.  It 
was  such  a  dreadful  day  to  me  when  I  was  a  boy,  I  never 
got  over  it,  and  never  will."  Those.parents  did  not  "  call 
the  Sabbath  a  delight ;"  they  made  it  a  gloom.     But  there 


THE  BRIGHTEST  OF  DA  YS.  JJ4.7 

are  houses  represented  here  this  morning  where  the  chil- 
dren say  through  the  week,  "I  wonder  when  Sunday 
will  come !"  They  are  anxious  to  have  it  come.  I  hear 
their  hosanna  in  the  house;  I  hear  their  hosanna  in  the 
school.  God  intended  the  Sabbath  to  be  especially  a 
day  for  the  father.  The  mother  is  home  all  the  week. 
Sabbath-day  comes,  and  God  says  to  the  father,  who  has 
been  busy  from  Monday  morning  to  Saturday  night  at 
the  store,  or  away  from  home,  "  This  is  your  day.  See 
what  you  can  do  in  this  little  flock  in  preparing  them 
for  heaven.  This  day  I  set  apart  for  you."  You  know 
very  well  that  there  are  many  parents  who  are  mere  sut- 
lers of  the  household ;  they  provide  the  food  and  rai- 
ment; once  in  a  while,  perhaps,  they  hear  the  child  read 
a  line  or  two  in  the  new  primer ;  or  if  there  be  a  case  of 
especial  discipline,  and  the  mother  can  not  manage  it, 
the  child  is  brought  up  in  the  court-martial  of  the  in- 
ther's  discipline  and  punished.  That  is  all  there  is  of  it. 
No  scrutiny  of  that  child's  immortal  interests,  no  realiza- 
tion of  the  fact  that  the  child  will  soon  go  out  in  a  world 
where  there  are  gigantic  and  overwhelming  temptations 
that  have  swamped  millions.  But  in  some  households 
it  is  not  that  way  ;  the  home,  beautiful  on  ordinary  da3's, 
is  more  beautiful  now  that  the  Sabbath  has  dawned. 
There  is  more  joy  in  the  "good-morning,"  there  is  more 
tenderness  in  the  morning  prayer.  The  father  looks  at 
the  child,  and  the  child  looks  at  the  father.  The  little 
one  dares  now  to  ask  questions  without  any  fear  of  being 
answered,  "  Don't  bother  me — I  must  be  off  to  the  store." 
Now  the  father  looks  at  the  child,  and  he  sees  not  mere- 
ly the  blue  eyes,  the  arched  brow,  the  long  lashes,  the 
sweet  lip.     He  sees  in  that  child  a  long  line  of  earthly 


348  THE  BRIGHTEST  OF  DA  TS. 

destinies ;  he  sees  in  that  child  an  immeasurable  eternity. 
As  he  touches  that  child,  he  says,  "  I  wonder  what  will 
be  the  destiny  of  this  little  one?  I  wonder  if  on  this 
brow  will  come  the  coronet  of  God's  redemption  or  the 
iron  crown  of  despair?  I  wonder  if  I  will  clasp  this  lit- 
tle one  after  all  my  Sabbaths  have  passed,  and  the  doom 
of  eternity  has  been  announced?  Will  that  little  hand 
at  last  wave  a  palm  or  rattle  a  chain  ?"  And  while  this 
Christian  father  is  thinking  and  praying,  the  sweet  prom- 
ise flows  through  his  soul,  "  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  And  he  feels  a  joy,  not  like  that  which  sounds 
in  the  dance,  or  is  wafted  from  the  froth  of  the  wine-cup, 
or  that  which  is  like  the  "  crackling  of  thorns  under  a 
pot,"  but  the  joy  of  domestic  reunion  and  consecration. 

Have  I  been  picturing  something  that  is  merely  fanci- 
ful, or  is  it  possible  for  you  and  for  me  to  have  such  a 
home  as  that?  I  believe  it  is  possible.  If  we  can  have 
such  a  halo  of  grace  and  light  and  love  and  parental 
faithfulness  around  about  our  homes,  we  can  expect  for 
our  little  ones,  when  they  go  out  in  the  world,  a  life  of 
great  usefulness,  and  finally  a  home  in  heaven. 

I  have  a  statistic  that  I  would  like  to  give  you.  A 
great  many  people,  j^ou  know,  say  there  is  nothing  in 
the  Christian  discipline  of  a  household.  In  New  Hamp- 
shire there  were  two  neighborhoods  —  the  one  of  six 
families,  the  other  of  five  families.  The  six  families  dis- 
regarded the  Sabbath.  In  time,  five  of  these  families 
were  broken  up  by  the  separation  of  husbands  and 
wives;  the  other  by  the  father  becoming  a  thief  Eight 
or  nine  of  the  parents  became  drunkards,  one  committed 
suicide,  and  all  came  to  penury.  Of  some  forty  or  fifty 
descendants,  about  twenty  are  known  to  be  drunkards 


THE  BRIGHTEST  OF  DA  YS.  3^9 

and  gamblers  and  dissolute.  Four  or  five  have  been  in 
State-prison.  One  fell  in  a  duel.  Some  are  in  the  alms- 
house. Only  one  became  a  Cliristian,  and  he  after  first 
having  been  outrageously  dissipated.  The  other  five 
families  that  regarded  the  Sabbath  were  all  prospered. 
Eight  or  ten  of  the  children  are  consistent  members 
of  the  church.  Some  of  them  became  ofl&cers  in  the 
church;  one  is  a  minister  of  the  Gospel;  one  is  a  mis- 
sionary to  China.  ISTo  poverty  among  any  of  them.  The 
homestead  is  now  in  the  hands  of  the  third  generation. 
Those  who  have  died  have  died  in  the  peace  of  the  Gos- 
pel. Oh,  is  there  nothing  in  a  household  that  remem- 
bers God's  holy  day  ?  Can  it  be  possible  that  those  who 
disregard  this  holy  commandment  can  be  prospered  for 
this  life,  or  have  any  good  hope  of  the  life  that  is  to 
come  ? 

Again,  we  ought  to  have  in  the  Sabbath  the  joy  of 
Christian  assemblage.  Where  are  all  those  people  going 
on  the  Sabbath  ?  You  see  them  moving  up  and  down 
the  street.  Is  it  a  festal  day  ?  people  might  ask.  Has 
there  been  some  public  edict  commanding  the  people  to 
come  forth?  Ko,  they  are  only  worshipers  of  God  who 
are  going  to  their  places  of  religious  service.  In  what 
delicate  scale  shall  I  weigh  the  joy  of  Christian  convoca- 
tion? It  gives  brightness  to  the  eye,  and  a  flush  to  the 
cheek,  and  a  pressure  to  the  hand,  and  a  thrill  to  the 
heart.  You  see  the  aged  man  tottering  along  on  his 
staff  through  the  aisle.  You  see  the  little  child  led  by 
the  hand  of  its  mother.  You  look  around  and  rejoice 
that  this  is  God's  day,  and  this'the  communion  of  saints. 
"One  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism."  Some  familiar 
tune  sets  all  the  soul  a-quiver  and  a-quake  with  rapture. 


850  THE  BRIGHTEST  OF  DA  YS. 

We  plunge  into  some  old  hymn,  and  all  our  cares  and 
anxieties  are  bathed  off.  The  glorious  Gospel  transports 
lis,  the  Spirit  descends,  Jesus  appears,  and  we  feel  the 
bounding,  spreading,  electric  joy  of  Christian  convoca- 
tion. 

I  look  upon  the  Church  of  God  as  one  vast  hosanna. 
Joy  dripping  from  the  baptismal  font,  joy  glowing  in 
the  sacramental  cup,  joy  warbling  in  the  anthem,  joy 
beating  against  the  gate  of  heaven  with  a  hallelujah  like 
the  voice  of  mighty  thunderings.  Beautiful  for  situa- 
tion !  The  joy  of  the  whole  earth  is  Mount  Zion.  It  is 
the  day  and  the  place  where  Christ  reviews  his  troops, 
bringing  them  out  in  companies  and  regiments  and  bat- 
talions, riding  along  the  line,  examining  the  battle-torn 
•flags  of  past  combat,  and  cheering  them  on  to  future  vic- 
tories.    Oh  the  joy  of  Christian  assemblage ! 

I  remark  also,  we  are  to  have  in  this  day  the  joy  of 
eternal  Sabhatism.  I  do  not  believe  it  possible  for  any 
Christian  to  spend  the  Lord's  day  here  without  think- 
ing of  heaven.  There  is  something  in  the  gathering  of 
people  in  church  on  earth  to  make  one  think  of  the  rapt 
assemblage  of  the  skies.  There  is  something  in  the  song 
of  the  Christian  Church  to  make  one  think  of  the  song  of 
the  elders  before  the  throne,  the  harpists  and  the  trumpet- 
ers of  God  accompanying  the  haivnony.  The  light  of  a 
better  Sabbath  gilds  the  tops  of  this,  and  earth  and  heav- 
en come  within  speaking  distance  of  each  other,  the  song 
of  triumph  waving  backward  and  forward,  now  tossed 
tip  by  the  Church  of  earth,  now  sent  back  by  the  Church 
of  heaven. 

"  Day  of  all  the  week  the  best, 
Emblem  of  eternal  rest." 


THE  BRIGHTEST  OF  DATS.  351 

The  Christian  man  stands  radiant  in  its  light.  His 
bereft  heart  rejoices  at  the  thought  of  a  country  where 
there  is  neither  a  coffin  nor  grave ;  his  weary  body  glows 
at  the  idea  of  a  land  where  there  are  no  burdens  to  carry, 
and  no  exhaustive  journeys  to  take.  He  eats  the  grapes 
of  Eshcol.  He  stands  upon  the  mountain  top  and  looks 
off  upon  the  Promised  Land.  He  hears  the  call  of  the 
eternal  towers,  and  the  tramp  of  the  numberless  multi- 
tLide  with  sins  forgiven.  This  is  the  day  which  the  Lord 
hath  made.  Let  us  rejoice  and  be  glad  in  it.  Oh  ye 
who  have  been  hunting  for  Sunday  pleasures  in  the 
street,  and  on  the  river-bank,  and  in  the  houses  of  sin, 
I  commend  to  you  this  holy  day  and  holy  service !  I  do 
not  invite  you  to  swallow  a  great  bitterness,  or  to  carry 
a  heavy  yoke;  but  I  invite  you  to  feel  in  body,  mind, 
and  soul  the  thrill  of  joy  which  God  has  handed  down  in 
the  chalices  of  the  golden  Sabbath. 

With  what  revulsion  and  with  what  pity  we  must  look 
out  on  that  large  class  of  persons  in  our  day  who  would, 
by  legislative  enactment,  and  by  newspaper  and  maga- 
zine, and  by  their  own  personal  example,  throw  discredit 
upon  the  Lord's  day.  There  are  two  things  which  Prot- 
estants ought  never  to  give  up:  the  one  is  the  Bible, 
the  other  is  the  Sabbath.  Take  away  one,  and  you  take 
both.  Take  either,  and  farewell  to  Christianity  in  this 
country,  farewell  to  our  civil  and  religious  liberties. 
When  they  go,  all  go.  He  who  has  ever  spent  Sunday 
in  Paris,  or  Antwerp,  or  Eome,  if  he  be  an  intelligent 
Christian,  will  pray  God  that  the  day  will  never  come 
when  the  Sabbath  of  continental  Europe  shall  put  its 
foot  upon  our  shores.  I  had  a  friend  in  Syracuse  who 
lived  to  be  one  hundred  vears  of  age.     He  said  to  me, 

15* 


.352  THE  BRIGHTEST  OF  DAYS. 

in  his  ninety-nintli  year,  "I  went  across  the  mountains 
in  the  early  history  of  this  country.  Sabbath  morning 
came.  ■,  We  were  beyond  the  reach  of  civilization.  My 
comrades  were  all  going  out  for  an  excursion.  I  said, 
'  No,  I  won't  go ;  it  is  Sunday.'  Why,  they  laughed. 
They  said,  '  We  haven't  any  Sunday  here.'  '  Oh  yes,' 
I  said,  '  you  have.  /  brought  it  with  me  over  the  mount- 
ains.''^'' 

There  are  two  or  three  ways  in  which  we  can  war 
against  Sabbath-breaking  usages  in  this  day ;  and  the 
first  thing  is  to  get  our  children  right  upon  this  subject, 
and  teach  them  that  the  Sabbath-day  is  the  holiest  of  all 
the  days,  and  the  best  and  the  gladdest.  Unless  you 
teach  your  child  under  the  parental  roof  to  keep  the 
Lord's  day,  there  are  nine  hundred  and  ninety  chances 
out  of  a  thousand  it  will  never  learn  to  keep  the  Sab- 
bath. You  may  think  to  shirk  responsibility  in  the 
matter,  and  send  your  child  to  the  Sabbath-school  and 
the  house  of  God;  that  will  not  relieve  the  matter.  I 
want  to  tell  you,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  my  Maker  and 
my  Judge,  that  your  example  will  be  more  potential 
than  an}^  instruction  they  get  elsewhere;  and  if  you 
disregard  the  Lord's  day  yourself,  or  in  any  wise  throw 
contempt  upon  it,  you  are  blasting  your  children  with 
an  infinite  curse.  It  is  a  rough  truth,  I  know,  told  in  a 
rough  way ;  but  it  is  God's  truth,  nevertheless.  Your 
child  may  go  on  to  seventy  or  eighty  years  of  nge,  but 
that  child  will  never  get  over  the  awful  disadvantage  of 
having  had  a  Sabbath-breaking  father  or  a  Sabbath- 
breaking  mother.  It  is  the  joy  of  many  of  us  that  we 
can  look  back  to  an  early  home  where  God  was  hon- 
ored, and  when  the  Sabbath  came  it  was  a  day  of  great 


THE  BRIGHTEST  OF  DA  YS.  853 

consecration  and  joy.  We  remember  the  old  faces 
around  the  table  that  Sabbath  morning.  Our  hearts 
melt  when  we  think  of  those  blessed  associations,  and 
we  may  have  been  off  and  committed  many  indiscretions 
and  done  many  wTong  things;  but  the  day  will  never 
come  when  we  forget  the  early  home  in  which  God's  day 
w^as  regarded,  and  father  and  mother  told  us  to  keep  hojy 
the  Sabbath. 

There  is  another  way  in  which  we  can  war  against  the 
Sabbath-breaking  usages  of  the  country  at  this  time,  and 
that  is  by  making  our  houses  of  worship  attractive  and 
the  religious  services  inspiriting.     I  plead  not  for  a  gor- 
geous audience-chamber;  I  plead  not  for  groined  rafters 
or  magnificent  fresco;   but  I  do  plead  for  comfortable 
churches,  home-like  churches— places  where  the  church- 
going  population  behave  as  they  ought  to.     Make  the 
church  welcome  to  all,  however  poorly  clad  they  may  be, 
or  whatever  may  have  been  their  past  history ;  for  I  think 
the  Church  of  God  is  not  so  much  made  for  you  who 
could  have  churches  in  your  own  house,  but  for  the  vast 
population  of  our  great  cities,  who  are  treading  on  toward 
death,  with  no  voice  of  mercy  to  arrest  them.    Ah  !  when 
the  prodigal  comes  into  the  church,  do  not  stare  at  him 
as  though  he  had  no  right  to  come.     Give  him  the  best 
seat  you  can  find  for  him.     Sometimes  a  man  wakes  up 
from  his  sin,  and  he  says,  "I'll  go  to  the  house  of  God." 
Perhaps  he  comes  from  one  motive,  perhaps  from  anoth- 
er.    He  finds  the  church  dark  and  the  Christian  people 
fi-igid  (and  there  are  no  people  on  earth  who  can  be  more 
frigid  than  Christian  people  when  they  try),  and  the  mu- 
sic^is  dull,  and  he  never  comes  again.     Suppose  one  of 
these  men  enters  the  church.     As  he  comes  in  he  hears 


354  THE  BRIGHTEST  OF  DAYS. 

a  song  whicli  his  mother  sang  when  he  was  a  boy;  he 
remembers  it.  He  sits  down,  and  some  one  hands  him  a 
book,  open  at 

"Jerusalem,  my  happy  home, 
Name  ever  dear  to  me." 

"Yes,"  he  says,  "  I  have  heard  that  many  times."  He 
sees  cheerful  Christian  people  there,  every  man's  face  a 
psalm  of  thanksgiving  to  God.  He  says,  "  Do  you  have 
this  so  every  Sunday?  I  have  heard  that  the  house 
of  God  was  a  doleful  place,  and  Christians  were  lugu- 
brious and  repelling!  I  have  really  enjoyed  myself!" 
The  next  Sabbath  the  man  is  again  in  the  same  place. 
Tears  of  repentance  start  down  his  cheek;  he  begins 
to  pray;  and  when  the  communion-table  is  spread, 
he  sits  at  it,  and  some  one  reaches  over  and  says,  "  I 
am  surprised  to  find  you  here.  I  thought  you  didn't 
believe  in  such  things."  "Ah !"  he  says,  "  I  have  been 
captured.  I  came  in  one  day,  and  found  you  were  all 
so  loving  and  cheerful  here  that  I  concluded  I  would 
come  among  you.  Where  thou  goest  I  will  go ;  thy  peo- 
ple shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God  my  God.  Where 
thou  diest  will  I  die,  and  there  will  I  be  buried." 

Ah !  you  can't  drive  men  out  of  their  sins,  but  you 
can  coax  them  out — you  can  charm  them  out. 

I  would  to  God  that  we  could  all  come  to  a  higher  ap- 
preciation of  this  Sabbath  heritage!  We  can  not  count 
the  treasures  of  one  Christian  Sabbath.  It  spreads  out 
over  us  the  two  wings  of  the  archangel  of  merc}^  Oh, 
blessed  Sabbath!  blessed  Sabbath!  They  scoff  a  great 
deal  about  the  old  Puritanic  Sabbaths,  and  there  is  a 
wonderful  amount  of  wit  expended  upon  that  subject 
now — the  Sabbaths  they  used  to  have  in  New  England. 


THE  BRIGHTEST  OF  DA  YS.  355 

I  never  lived  in  New  England,  but  I  would  rather  trust 
the  old  Puritanic  Sabbath,  with  all  its  faults,  than  this 
modern  Sabbath,  which  is  fast  becoming  no  Sabbath 
at  all.  If  our  modern  Sabbatism  shall  produce  as  stal- 
wart Christian  character  as  the  old  New  England  Puri- 
tanic Sabbatism,  I  shall  be  satisfied,  and  I  shall  be  sur- 
prised. 

Oh,  blessed  day !  blessed  day !  I  should  like  to  die 
some  Sabbath  morning  when  the  air  is  full  of  church  mu- 
sic and  the  bells  are  ringing.  Leaving  my  home  group 
with  a  dying  blessing,  I  should  like  to  look  off  upon 
some  Christian  assemblage  chanting  the  praises  of  God 
as  I  went  up  to  join  the  one  hundred  and  forty  and  four 
thousand  and  the  thousands  of  thousands  standing  around 
the  throne  of  Jesus.  Hark !  I  hear  the  bell  of  the  old 
kirk  on  the  hill-side  of  heaven.  It  is  a  wedding-bell,  for 
behold  the  Bridegroom  cometh.  It  is  a  victor's  bell,  for 
we  are  more  than  conquerors  through  Him  who  hath 
loved  us.  It  is  a  Sabbath-bell,  for  it  calls  the  nations  of 
earth  and  heaven  to  everlasting  repose. 

**  Oh  when,  thou  city  of  my  God, 
Shall  I  thy  courts  ascend  ? 
Where  congregations  ne'er  break  up, 
And  Sabbaths  have  no  end." 


356  THE  WORLD   GOING. 


THE  WORLD  GOING. 

** The  fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away." — 1  Corinthians  vii.,31. 

THERE  are  many  who  find  in  this  subject  only  an 
element  of  sadness.  I  find  in  it  chiefly  an  element 
of  joy.  As  Paul  sometimes  used  figures  drawn  from  the 
theatre,  I  think  that  I  have  a  right  to  say  that  as  the 
shifting  scenes  at  the  end  of  an  act  do  not  indicate  that 
the  play  is  ended,  but  only  that  it  is  developing,  so  all 
the  changes  on  earth  are  but  the  shifting  scenes  in  the 
great  drama  of  God's  providence,  which  will  come  to  a 
glorious  and  successful  completion.  I  want,  to-night,  to 
take  a  Christian  and  manly  view  of  this  subject,  and  not 
the  view  of  a  sickly  sentimentalist.  I  am  glad  that  the 
fashion  of  the  world,  and  that  the  world  itself,  is  passing 
away,  for  it  is  only  making  room  for  something  better. 
In  the  same  procession  in  which  march  the  manners,  and 
the  customs,  and  the  institutions  of  the  world,  march  the 
dispensations  of  God's  providence  by  which  the  Church 
is  to  be  made  mightier,  and  society  purer.  Roll  on,  oh 
wheel  of  the  ages !  Though  institutions  fall,  though  gov- 
ernments be  crushed,  though  empires  be  depopulated, 
though  the  world  be  destroyed,  roll,  great  wheel  of  the 
ages!  Let  all  crowns  melt,  if  our  King  gets  his  domin- 
ions! Let  all  armies  be  routed,  if  from  the  ruins  Christ 
shall  marshal  his  armies  with  banners !  Let  this  earth 
burn,  if  out  of  the  leaping  flames  there  shall  spring  the 
new  heaven  and  new  earth  in  which  dwelleth  righteous- 
ness ! 


THE  WOELD   GOING.  S67 

I  propose  to  talk  to  you  about  the  transitory  nature 
of  all  earthly  things,  and  then  to  guard  you  against  some 
wrong  applications  of  the  subject. 

I  suppose  you  have  all  noticed  the  changes  -m  families. 
Where  are  the  prominent  families  of  forty  years  ago? 
They  ruled  society  as  with  a  sceptre.  The  cut  and  the 
style  of  their  dress  decided  the  apparel  of  the  city.  They 
walked  with  an  air  of  opulence,  or  dashed  down  be- 
hind well-groomed  steeds  clattering  on  the  pavements. 
As  they  passed,  all  hats  were  lifted ;  as  they  entered  a 
room,  all  conversation  was  hushed  or  turned  upon  them. 
Poets,  rulers,  millionaires,  sat  at  their  table.  They  drank 
their  wine  from  chalices  that  had  glittered  in  the  ban- 
quets of  a  centurj^  They  sat  in  antique  chairs,  in  which 
lordly  men  had  lounged,  looking  at  the  walls  papered 
with  the  many  scenes  of  the  chase,  in  which  their  an- 
cestors had  mingled  with  sounding  horn,  and  baying 
hounds,  and  broken  antlers.  They  were  praised — they 
were  sought  after.  Other  vehicles  halted  to  let  theirs 
pass,  and  to  their  haughty  look  men  bowed  obsequious- 
ly, and  danced  around  them  with  flattering  attentions. 
"Where  are  those  families  now  ?  Some  of  them,  I  am 
glad  to  say,  their  name  mighty  on  'Change,  and  mighty 
in  social  circles,  untouched  of  disaster.  But  where  are 
the  most  of  them?  Shall  I  tell  you  the  story?  The 
coat  of  arms  is  lost.  The  pictures  and  the  golden  urn. 
long  ago  went  to  the  auctioneer's  room.  Halls,  so  airy 
and  grand,  have  become  a  nest  of  brokers'  shops.  He 
goes  along  the  street,  broken  down  with  dissipations, 
buttons  off,  and  rum-blossoms  on — the  last  relic  of  that 
great  house.  In  that  old  arm-chair,  that  went  down 
into  the  rookciy  ;  in  the  pictures,  whose  torn  canvas  was 


358  THE  WORLD   GOING. 

pitched  into  the  garret  rubbish  ;  in  those  lialls  tliat  have 
p?ichanged  the  lordly  step  of  the  proprietor  for  the  shuf- 
fling feet  of  bargain  makers,  I  bear  a  voice,  loud  and 
deep,  sounding  above  cartman's  dray  and  auctioneer's 
mallet,  "The  fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away !" 

So,  likewise,  has  it  been  with  all  human  achievements.  ■ 
The  bridge,  that  taxed  the  brain  of  the  architect,  no 
more  crosses  the  stream;  but  the  romantic  school-boy 
sits  on  the  crumbling  abutments  making  rhymes  about 
the  mutation  of  all  earthly  things.  To  the  structure 
that  once  caused  the  mill-wright  many  sleepless  nights, 
the  farmer  no  more  brings  his  grist.  The  old  wheel, 
broken  and  covered  with  weeds,  no  more  dashes  the 
mountain  stream  to  foam.  The  fine  house,  that  over- 
shadowed all  the  others  on  the  block,  now  crumbles; 
the  small  window-panes,  and  old-time  roof,  and  outland- 
ish stairs,  seeming  in  sorrow  to  say,  oh  for  those  days 
when  people  passing  here  would  exclaim,  "  AVho  lives 
there?"  Many  of  the  books  that  were  popular  in  the 
libraries  forty  years  ago  are  gone  now — gone  down  into 
the  cellar,  gone  into  the  garret,  or  stand  begging  on  the 
book-stand  on  the  street  corner,  or  sleep  their  last  sleep 
in  the  antiquarian's  library.  Not  knowing  where  they 
tread,  the  Tennysons,  and  Longfellows,  and  Bancrofts, 
walk  over  the  graves  of  historians  and  poets,  taking  by 
storm  the  libraries  of  the  world ;  mounting  up  on  lad- 
ders of  shelves  until  they  plant  their  batteries  of  light 
and  truth  on  the  very  heights  of  knowledge.  The  great 
libraries  at  the  Vatican,  and  in  Munich  and  Dresden,  are 
only  the  AVestminster  Abbeys  in  which  royal  books  have 
been  buried.  The  tooth  of  Time  is  gnawing  away  at 
reputations  that  it  was  supposed  could  never  be  damaged 


THE  WORLD   GOING,  359 

or  lost.  Book-worms  are  boring  down  tbrougli  tlie  pas- 
sage that  was  expected  to  be  immortal,  while  those  old 
ambitious  authors  or  their  spirits  seem  wandering  up 
and  down  the  aisles  of  the  national  library,  unable  to 
find  their  way  out  into  the  sunlight,  with  skeleton  fin- 
gers fumbling  the  venerable  pages,  with  trembling  voice 
seeming  to  say,  "  Gone  and  forgotten !"  The  old  phi- 
losophers, who  spent  much  of  their  time  in  tinkering 
with  electricity,  are  mostly  forgotten,  while  Morse  las- 
soes the  lightning,  and  Cyrus  W.  Field  with  it  lashes 
fast  two  hemispheres.  Time  follows  right  after  Old 
Mortality,  but  with  sharper  chisel  and  stronger  hand, 
battering  to  pieces  the  monuments,  and  the  sarcophagus, 
and  the  Pyramids.  Lord  and  squire,  duke  and  duchess, 
earl  and  viscount,  baron  and  knight,  are  sharing  the 
same  fate  with-  Lov^ell  operative,  and  Nantucket  whale- 
man, and  Scranton  coal-heaver.  Feather  and  crest,  star 
and  epaulet,  and  cockade  sharing  the  same  fate  with 
shoe-maker's  last  and  blacksmith's  apron. 

So  has  it  also  been  with  great  cities.  Where  is  Nin- 
eveh, the  blossoming  splendor  of  the  Assyrian  empire, 
all  nations  driving  their  caravans  into  her  streets?  City 
of  precious  stones — jasper,  and  chrysoprasus,  and  chal- 
cedony ;  her  fountains  tossing  up  into  basins  of  alabaster, 
and  amidst  exquisite  statuary ;  the  wealth  and  pomp  of 
the  world  passing  through  her  streets,  strolling  through 
her  galleries  of  art,  shouting  in  her  amphitheatres,  min- 
gling in  her  scenes  of  splendor  and  triumph,  Alas  for 
Nineveh !  The  antiquarian  plunges  his  crow-bar  into 
the  grave  of  all  that  buried  splendor,  and  the  broken  pil- 
lars respond,  and  the  slabs  of  gypsum  speak  out,  and  the 
engraved  cylinders  break  the  silence,  and  all  the  ground 


360  2Tffi?  WOULD  Gomo. 

sends  up  rumbling,  rueful,  and  woeful  voices:  ''The 
fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away !"  Where  is  Tad- 
mor,  the  city  of  palms,  built  by  the  munificent  hand  of 
King  Solomon  ?  Warlike  tribes  dashed  back  from  her 
walls  as  a  wave  splits  into  foam  upon  a  rocky  beach. 
Palm  trees  grew  along  all  her  streets,  and  overshadowed 
many  of  her  buildings,  until  the  city  was  a  bower  of 
beauty.  The  wealth  of  all  nations  unpacked  and  un- 
rolled in  her  markets.  Iler  Temple  of  the  Sun,  with 
three  hundred  and  ninety  columns,  on  double  rows, 
heaving  up  toward  heaven,  on  shoulders  of  marble,  the 
worship,  and  the  pomp,  and  the  genius,  and  the  wealth 
of  a  great  nation.  Oh,  Tadmor!  the  cup  of  mirth  to 
thy  lip,  the  crown  of  greatness  on  thy  brow,  where  art 
thou?  The  huts  that  cluster  around  her  ruins  make  no 
answer.  The  broken  tombs,  and  the  defaced  sculpture, 
and  the  mutilated  frieze  respond  not;  but  the  sands  of 
the  desert  drift  across  the  place,  and  in  the  low,  mourn- 
ful moan  of  the  desert  wind  I  hear  it:  "The  fashion  of 
this  world  passeth  away !" 

So,  also,  my  friends,  has  it  been  with  all  earthly  au- 
tliorily.  Of  how  much  worth  now  is  the  crown  of  Cassar? 
Who  bids  for  it?  Who  cares  now  any  thing  about  the 
Amphictyonic  Council  or  the  laws  of  Lycurgus?  Who 
trembles  now  because  Xerxes  crossed  the  Hellespont  on 
a  bridge  of  boats?  Who  fears  because  ISTebuchadnez- 
zar  thunders  at  the  gates  of  Jerusalem?  Who  cares 
now  whether  or  not  Cleopatra  marries  Antony?  Who 
crouches  before  Ferdinand,  or  Boniface,  or  Alaric?  Can 
Cromwell  dissolve  the  English  Parliament  now?  Is 
William,  prince  of  Orange,  king  of  the  Netherlands? 
No ;  no  I     However  much  Elizabeth  may  love  the  Kus- 


THE  WORLD   GOIXG.  361 

sian  crown,  she  must  pass  it  to  Peter,  and  Peter  to  Cath- 
ei'ine,  and  Catherine  to  Paul,  and  Paul  to  Alexander,  and 
Alexander  to  Nicholas.  Leopold  puts  the  German  scep- 
tre into  the  hand  of  Joseph,  and  Philip  comes  down  off 
the  Spanish  throne  to  let  Ferdinand  go  on.  House  of 
Aragon,  house  of  Hapsburg,  house  of  Stuart,  house  of 
Bourbon,  quarreling  about  every  thing  else,  but  agreeing 
in  this :  "  The  fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away."  Bat 
have  all  these  dignitaries  gone?  Can  t\iey  not  be  called 
back?  I  have  been  in  assemblages  where  I  have  heard 
the  roll  called,  and  many  distinguished  men  have  an- 
swered. If  I  should  call  the  roll  to-night  of  some  of 
those  mighty  ones  who  have  gone,  I  wonder  if  they 
would  not  answer.  I  will  call  the  roll.  I  will  call  the 
roll  of  the  kings  first:  Alfred  the  Great!  William  the 
Conqueror!  Frederick  II. !  Louis  XYI. !  No  answer. 
I  will  call  the  roll  of  the  poets :  Eobert  Southey ! 
Thomas  Campbell!  John  Keats!  George  Crabbe! 
Robert  Burns!  Lord  Byron!  No  answer.  I  call  the 
roll  of  the  artists:  Michael  Angelo!  Paul  Veronese  I 
William  Turner!  Christopher  Wren!  No  answer. 
Eyes  closed.  Ears  deaf  Lips  silent.  Hands  palsied. 
Sceptre,  pencil,  pen,  sword,  put  down  forever.  In  liter- 
ature, in  art,  in  government,  "The  fashion  of  this  world 
passeth  away." 

But  I  find  a  more  striking  illustration  of  my  subject 
(at  any  rate,  it  is  more  impressive  to  my  own  mind) 
w^hen  I  look  at  the  changing  shape  of  this  physical  earth. 
Do  you  know  that  even  the  mountains  on  the  back  of 
a  thousand  streams  are  leaping  into  the  valley?  The 
Alleghanies  are  dying!  The  dews,  with  crvstalline 
mallet,  are  hammering  away  the  rocks.     (So  when  you 


862  THE  WORLD   GOING. 

say  any  tiling  is  "as  firm  as  a  rock,"  you  say  nothing.) 
Frosts,  and  showers,  and  lightnings  are  sculpturing 
Mount  Washington  and  the  Catskills.  Niagara  every 
year  is  digging  for  itself  a  quicker  plunge.  The  sea  all 
around  the  earth  on  its  shifting  shores  is  making  mighty 
changes  in  bar,  and  bay,  and  frith,  and  promontory. 
Some  of  the  old  sea-coasts  are  midland  now.  Oft'  Nan- 
tucket, eight  feet  below  low-water  mark,  are  found  now 
the  stumps  of  trees,  showing  that  the  waves  are  conquer- 
ing the  land.  Parts  of  Nova  Scotia  are  sinking.  Ships 
to-day  sail  over  what,  only  a  little  while  ago,  was  solid 
ground.  Near  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Croix  Eiver  is  an 
island  which,  in  the  movements  of  the  earth,  is  slowly 
but  certainly  rotating.  All  the  face  of  the  earth  changing 
— changing.  In  1831,  an  island  springs  up  in  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea.  In  1866,  another  island  comes  up  under 
the  observation  of  the  American  consul  as  he  looks 
oft' from  the  beach.  The  earth  all  the  time  changing,  the 
columns  of  a  temple  near  Bizoli  show  that  the  water  has 
risen  nine  feet  above  the  place  it  was  when  those  col- 
umns were  put  down.  Changing!  Our  Colorado  Eiv- 
er, once  vaster  than  the  Mississippi,  flowing  through  the 
great  American  desert,  which  was  then  an  Eden  of  lux- 
uriance, has  now  dwindled  to  a  small  stream  creeping 
down  through  a  gorge.  The  earth  itself,  that  was  once 
vapor,  afterward  water — nothing  but  water — afterward 
molten  rock,  cooling  off  through  the  ages  until  plants 
might  live,  and  animals  might  live,  and  men  might  live, 
changing  all  the  while,  now  crumbling,  now  breaking 
off  The  sun,  burning  down  gradually  in  its  socket. 
Changing!  changing!  an  intimation  of  the  last  great 
change  to  come  over  the  world  even  infused  into  the. 


THE  WOULD   GOING.  363 

mind  of  the  heathen  who  has  never  seen  the  Bible.  The 
Hindoos  believe  that  Bramah,  the  creator,  once  made 
all  things.  He  created  the  water,  then  moved  over  the 
water,  out  of  it  lifted  the  land,  grew  the  plants,  and  ani- 
mals, and  men  on  it.  Out  of  his  eye  went  the  sun.  Out 
of  his  lips  went  the  fire.  Out  of  his  ear  went  the  air. 
Then  Bramah  laid  down  to  sleep  four  thousand  three 
hundred  and  twenty  million  years.  After  that,  they  say, 
he  will  wake  up,  and  then  the  world  will  be  destroyed, 
and  he  will  make  it  over  again,  bringing  up  land,  bring- 
ing up  creatures  upon  it;  then  lying  down  again  to  sleep 
four  thousand  three  hundred  and  twenty  million  years, 
then  waking  up  and  destroying  the  world  again — cre- 
ation and  demolition  following  each  other,  until  after 
three  hundred  and  twenty  sleeps,  each  one  of  these  slum- 
bers four  thousand  three  hundred  and  twenty  million 
years  long,  Bramah  will  wake  up  and  die,  and  the  universe 
will  die  with  him — an  intimation,  though  very  faint,  of 
the  great  change  to  come  upon  this  physical  earth  spoken 
of  in  the  Bible.  But  while  Bramah  may  sleep,  our  God 
never  slumbers  nor  sleeps;  and  the  heavens  shall  pass 
away  with  a  great  noise,  and  the  elements  shall  melt  with 
fervent  heat,  and  the  earth  and  all  things  that  are  there- 
in shall  be  burned  up. 

"  \Yell,"  says  some  one  in  the  audience,  "if  that  is 
so;  if  tlie  world  is  going  from  one  change  to  another;  if 
the  fashion  of  this  w^orld  is  passing  away,  then  what  is 
the  use  of  my  toiling  for  its  betterment?"  That  is  the 
point  on  which  I  want  to  guard  3^ou.  I  do  not  w^ant 
you  to  become  misanthropic.  It  is  a  great  and  glorious 
world.  If  Christ  could  afford  to  spend  thirty-three  years 
on  it  for  its  redemption,  then  you  can  afford  to  toil  and 


364  THE  WORLD   G0IN9. 

pray  for  tlie  betterment  of  the  nations,  and  for  the  bring- 
ing on  of  that  glorious  time  when  all  people  shall  see  the 
salvation  of  God.  While,  therefore,  I  want  to  guard  you 
against  misanthropic  notions  in  respect  to  this  subject  I 
have  presented,  I  want  you  to  take  this  thought  home 
with  you :  This  world  is  a  poor  foundation  to  build  on.  It 
is  a  changing  world,  and  it  is  a  dying  world.  The  shift- 
ing scenes  and  the  changing  sands  are  only  emblems  of 
all  earthly  expectation.  Life  is  very  much  like  this  day 
through  which  we  have  passed.  To  many  of  us  it  is 
storm  and  darkness,  then  sunshine,  storm  and  darkness, 
then  afterward  a  little  sunshine,  now  again  darkness  and 
storm.  Oh,  build  not  your  hopes  upon  this  uncertain 
world !  Build  on  God.  Confide  in  Jesus.  Plan  for  an 
eternal  residence  at  Christ's  right  hand.  Then,  come 
sickness  or  health,  come  joy  or  sorrow,  come  life  or  death, 
all  is  well,  all  is  well,  though  the  fashion  of  this  world 
does  pass  away. 


WEAPONS  CAPTURED.  ^Qij 


WEAPONS  CAPTURED. 

"There  is  none  like  that ;  give  it  me." — 1  Samuel  xxl.,  9. 

DAYID  fled  from  his  pursuers.  The  world  runs  very 
fast  when  it  is  chasing  a  good  man.  The  country 
is  trying  to  catch  David,  and  to  slay  him.  David  goes 
into  the  house  of  a  priest,  and  asks  him  for  a  sword  or 
spear  with  which  to  defend  himself.  The  priest,  not  be- 
ing accustomed  to  use  deadly  weapons,  tells  David  that 
he  can  not  supply  him ;  but  suddenly  the  priest  thinks 
of  an  old  sword  that  had  been  carefully  wrapped  up  and 
laid  away — the  very  sword  that  Goliath  formerly  used, 
and  he  takes  down  that  sword,  and  while  he  is  unwrap- 
ping the  sharp,  glittering,  memorable  blade,  it  flashes 
upon  David's  mind  that  this  is  the  very  sword  that  was 
used  against  himself  when  he  was  in  the  fight  with  Go- 
liath, and  David  can  hardly  keep  his  hand  off  of  it  until 
the  priest  has  unwound  it.  David  stretches  out  his  hand 
toward  that  old  sword,  and  says,  "There  is  none  like 
that;  give  it  me."  In  other  words,  "I  want  in  my  own 
hand  the  sw^ord  which  has  been  used  against  me,  and 
against  the  cause  of  God."  So  it  was  given  him.  Well, 
my  friends,  that  is  not  the  first  or  the  last  sword  once 
used  by  giant  and  Philistine  iniquity  which  is  to  come 
into  the  possession  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  his  glori- 
ous Church.  I  want,  as  well  as  God  may  help  me,  to 
show  you  that  many  a  weapon  which  has  been  used 
against  the  armies  of  God  is  yet  to  be  captured  and  used 


366  WEATONS  CAPTURED. 

on  our  side ;  and  I  only  imitate  David  when  I  stretch 
out  my  hand  toward  that  blade  of  the  Philistine,  and 
cry^  "  There  is  none  like  that;  give  it  me  !" 

I  remark,  first,  that  this  is  true  in  regard  to  all  scien- 
tific exijloration.  You  know  that  the  first  discoveries  in 
astronomy,  and  geology,  and  chronology  were  used  to 
battle  Christianity.  Worldly  philosophy  came  out  of  its 
laboratory,  and  out  of  its  observatory,  and  said,  "Now, 
we  will  prove,  by  the  very  structure  of  the  earth,  and  by 
the  movement  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  that  the  Bible  is 
a  lie,  and  that  Christianity,  as  we  have  it  among  men,  is 
a  positive  imposition."  Good  men  trembled.  The  tele- 
scope, the  Leydenjars,  the  electric  batteries,  all  in  the 
hands  of  the  Philistines.  But  one  day,  Christianity, 
looking  about  for  some  weapon  with  which  to  defend 
itself,  happened  to  see  the  very  old  sword  that  th^se 
atheistic  Philistines  had  been  using  against  the  truth, 
and  cried  out,  "There  is  none  like  that;  give  it  me!" 
And  Copernicus,  and  Galileo,  and  Kepler,  and  Isaac 
Newton  came  forth  and  told  the  world  that,  in  their  ran- 
sacking of  the  earth  and  heavens,  they  had  found  over- 
whelming presence  of  the  God  whom  we  worship ;  and 
this  old  Bible  began  to  shake  itself  from  the  Koran,  and 
Shaster,  and  Zendavesta  with  which  it  had  been  covered 
up,  and  lay  on  the  desk  of  the  scholar,  and  in  the  labor- 
atory of  the  chemist,  and  in  the  lap  of  the  Christian, 
unharmed  and  unanswered,  while  the  tower  of  the  mid- 
night heavens  struck  a  silvery  chime  in  its  praise. 

Worldly  philosophy  said,  "Matter  is  eternal.  The 
world  always  was.  God  did  not  make  it."  Christian 
philosophy  plunges  its  crow-bar  into  rocks,  and  finds 
that  the  v^orld  was  gradually  made,  and  if  gradually 


WJEAPOA^S  CAPTURED.  ^oi 

made,  there  must  Lave  been  some  point  at  which  the 
process  started;  then,  who  started  it?  And  so  that  ob- 
jection was  overcome,  and  in  the  first  three  words  of 
the  Bible  w^e  find  that  Moses  stated  a  n^agnificcnt  truth 
when  he  said,  ^'In  the  heginningy 

Worldly  philosophy  said,  "  Your  Bible  u  a  most  inac- 
curate book ;  all  that  story  in  the  Old  Testament,  again 
and  again  told,  about  the  army  of  the  locusts — it  is  pre- 
posterous. There  is  nothing  in  the  coming  of  the  locusts 
like  an  army.  An  army  w^alks,  locusts  fly.  An  army  goes 
in  order  and  procession,  locusts  without  order."  "  Wait!" 
said  Christian  philosophy;  and  in  1868,  in  the  south-w^est- 
ern  part  of  this  country,  Christian  men  went  out  to  exam- 
ine the  march  of  the  locusts.  There  are  men  right  befoi-e 
me  who  must  have  noticed  in  that  very  part  of  the  country 
the  coming  up  of  the  locusts  like  an  army;  and  it  w\as 
found  that  all  the  newspapers  unwittingly  spoke  of  them 
as  an  army.  Why  ?  They  seem  to  have  a  commander 
They  march  like  a  host.  The}^  halt  like  a  host.  No  ar- 
row ever  went  in  straighter  flight  than  the  locusts  come 
— not  even  turning  aside  for  the  wind.  If  the  wand  rises, 
the  locusts  drop,  and  then  rise  again  after  it  has  gone 
down,  taking  the  same  line  of  march,  not  varying  a  foot. 
The  old  Bible  right  every  time  when  it  speaks  of  locusts 
coming  like  an  arni}^ ;  w^orldly  philosophy  wrong. 

Worldly  philosopliy  said,  "All  that  story  about  the 
light  'turned  as  clay  to  the  seal,'  is  simply  an  absurd- 
it3^"  Old-time  w^orldly  philosophy  said,  "The  liglit 
comes  straight."  Christian  philosophy  says,  "Wait  a 
little  while,"  and  it  goes  on  and  makes  discoveries,  and 
finds  that  the  atmosphere  curves  and  bends  the  rays  of 
light  around  the  earth,  literally  "as  the  clay  to  the  seal." 

16' 


3(>8  WFAFONS  CAPTURED. 

The  Bible  right  again  ;  worldly  philosophy  wrong  again. 
"Ah,"  says  worldly  philosophy,  "all  that  allusion  in 
Job  about  the  foundations  of  the  earth  is  simply  an 
absurditj^  '  Where  wast  thou,'  says  God,  '  when  I  set 
the  foundations  of  the  earth  ?'  The  earth  has  no  foun- 
dation I"  Christian  philosophy  comes,  and  finds  that  the 
word  as  translated  "  foundations "  may  be  better  trans- 
lated "  sockets."  So  now  see  how  it  will  read  if  it  is 
translated  right :  "  Where  wast  thou  when  I  set  the 
sockets  of  the  earth?"  Where  is  the  socket?  It  is  the 
hollow  of  God's  hand  —  a  socket  large  enough  for  any 
world  to  turn  in. 

Worldly  philosophy  said,  "What  an  absurd  story 
about  Joshua  making  the  sun  and  moon  stand  still.  If 
the  world  had  stopped  an  instant,  the  whole  universe 
would  have  been  out  of  gear."  "  Stop,"  said  Christian 
philosophy,  "  not  quite  so  quick."  The  world  has  two 
motions — one  on  its  own  axis,  and  the  other  around  the 
sun.  It  was  not  necessary,  in  making  them  stand  still, 
that  both  motions  should  be  stopped — only  the  one  turn- 
ing the  world  on  its  own  axis.  There  was  no  reason 
why  the  halting  of  the  earth  should  have  jarred  and 
disarranged  the  whole  universe.  Joshua  right  and  God 
right;  infidelity  wrong  every  time.  I  knew  it  would  be 
wrong.  I  thank  God  that  the  time  has  come  when  Chris- 
tians need  not  be  scared  at  any  scientific  exploration. 
The  fact  is  that  Eeligion  and  Science  have  struck  hands 
in  eternal  friendship,  and  the  deeper  down  geology  can 
dig,  and  the  higher  up  astronomy  can  soar,  all  the  bet- 
ter for  us.  The  armies  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  have 
stormed  the  observatories  of  the  world's  science,  and 
from  the  hiejhest  towers  have  flungj  out  the  banner  of 


WEAFOxs  captuhed.  369 

the  cross;  and  Christianity  to-night,  from  the  observa- 
tories at  Albany  and  Washington,  stretches  out  its  hand 
toward  the  opposing  scientific  weapon,  crying,  "  There 
is  none  like  that ;  give  it  me  I"  I  was  reading  this  after- 
noon of  Herschel,  who  was  looking  at  a  meteor  through 
a  telescope,  and  when  it  came  over  the  face  of  the  tele- 
scope it  was  so  powerful  he  had  to  avert  his  eyes.  And 
it  has  been  just  so  that  many  an  astronomer  has  gone 
into  an  obseM'vatory  and  looked  up  into  the  midnight 
heavens,  and  the  Lord  God  has,  through  some  swinging 
world,  flamed  upon  his  vision,  and  the  learned  man  cried 
out,  "Who  am  I?  undone!  unclean!  Have  mercy, 
Lord  God !" 

Again,  I  remark  that  the  traveling  disposition  of  the 
worlds  which  was  adverse  to  morals  and  religion,  is  to 
be  brought  on  our  side.  The  man  that  went  down  to 
Jericho  and  fell  amidst  thieves,  was  a  type  of  a  great 
many  travelers.  There  is  many  a  man  who  is  very  hon- 
est at  home  who,  when  he  is  abroad,  has  his  honor  filch- 
ed, and  his  good  habits  stolen.  There  are  but  very  few 
men  who  can  stand  the  stress  of  an  expedition.  Six 
wrecks  at  a  watering-place  has  damned  many  a  man.  In 
the  olden  times  God  forbade  the  traveling  of  men  for  the 
purposes  of  trade,  because  of  the  corrupting  influences 
attending  it.  A.  good  many  men  now  can  not  stand  the 
transition  from  one  place  to  another.  Some  men  who 
seem  to  be  very  consistent  in  Brooklyn,  in  the  way  of 
keeping  the  Sabbath,  when  they  get  into  Spain,  on  the 
Lord's  day  always  go  out  to  see  the  bull-fights.  Plato 
said  that  no  city  ought  to  be  built  nearer  to  the  sea  than 
ten  miles,  lest  it  be  tempted  to  commerce.  But  this  trav- 
eling disposition  of  the  world,  which  was  adverse  to  that 


370  WIJAPO^'S   CAPTURED. 

which  is  good,  is  to  be  brought  on  our  side.  These  mail 
trains,  wh}^,  they  are  to  take  our  Bibles;  these  steam- 
ships, they  are  to  transport  our  missionaries;  these  sail- 
ors, rushing  from  city  to  city  all  around  the  world,  are  to 
be  converted  in  Christian  heralds,  and  go  out  and  preach 
Christ  among  the  heathen  nations.  The  gospels  are  in- 
finitely multiplied  in  beauty  and  power  since  Kobinson, 
and  Thompson,  and  Burckhardt  have  come  back  and 
talked  to  us  about  Siloam,  and  Capernaum,  and  Jerusa- 
lem, pointing  out  to  us  the  lilies  about  which  Jesus 
preached,  the  beach  upon  which  Paul  was  shipwrecked, 
the  fords  at  which  Jordan  was  passed,  the  Eed  Sea  bank 
on  which  were  tossed  the  carcasses  of  the  drowned  Egyp- 
tians. A  man  said,  "I  went  to  the  Holy  Land  an  infi- 
del ;  I  came  back  a  Christian.     I  could  not  help  it." 

I  am  not  shocked  at  the  idea  recently  proposed,  of 
building  a  railroad  to  the  Ilo^y  Land.  I  wish  that  all 
the  world  might  go  and  see  Golgotha  and  Bethlehem. 
If  we  can  not  afford  to  pay  for  muleteers  now,  perhaps 
when  the  rail  train  goes  we  can  afford  to  buy  a  ticket 
from  Constantinople  to  Joppa,  and  so  we  will  get  to  see 
the  Holy  Land.  Then  let  Christians  travel !  God  speed 
the  rail  trains,  and  guide  the  steamships  this  night  pant- 
ing across  the  deep,  in  the  phosphorescent  wake — of  the 
shining  feet  of  him  who  from  wave-cliff  to  wave-cliff  trod 
bestormed  Tiberius.  The  Japanese  come  across  the  wa- 
ter and  see  our  civilization,  and  examine  our  Christiani- 
ty, and  go  back  and  tell  the  story,  and  keep  that  empire 
rocking  till  Jesus  shall  reign 

"Where'er  the  sun 
Does  his  successive  journeys  run." 

And  the  fire-arms,  with  which  the  infidel  traveler  brought 


WJ^'AI'Om  CAFTURED.  371 

down  the  Arab  horseman  and  the  jaclcals  of  the  desert, 
have  been  surrendered  to  the  Church,  and  we  reach  forth 
our  hand,  crying,  "There  is  none  like  that;  give  it  me!" 

So  it  has  also  been  with  the  learning  and  the  eloquence 
of  the  world.  People  say,  "Keligion  is  very  good  for 
women,  it  is  very  good  for  children,  but  not  for  men." 
But  we  have  in  the  roll  of  Christ's  host  Mozart  and  Han- 
del in  music;  Canova  and  Angelo  in  sculpture;  Ea- 
phael  and  Reynolds  in  painting;  Harvey  and  Boerhaave 
in  medicine;  Cowper  and  Scott  in  poetry;  Grotius  and 
Burke  in  statesmanship ;  Boyle  and  Leibnitz  in  philos- 
ophy; Thomas  Chalmers  and  John  Mason  in  theology. 
The  most  brilliant  writings  of  a  worldly  nature  are  all 
aglow  with  Scriptural  allusions.  Through  senatorial 
speech  and  through  essayist's  discourse,  Sinai  thunderSj 
and  Calvary  pleads,  and  Siloam  sparkles. 

Samuel  L.  Southard  was  mighty  in  the  court-room  and 
in  the  Senate  Chamber;  but  he  reserved  his  strongest  el- 
oquence for  that  day  when  he  stood  before  the  literary- 
societies  at  Princeton  Commencement  and  plead  for  the 
grandeur  of  our  Bible.  Daniel  Webster  won  not  his 
chief  garlands  while  he  was  consuming  Hayne,  nor  when 
he  opened  the  batteries  of  his  eloquence  on  Bunker  Hil), 
that  rocking  Sinai  of  the  American  Revolution;  but  on 
that  day  when,  in  the  fomous  Girard  Will  case,  he  show- 
ed his  affection  for  the  Christian  religion,  and  eulogized 
the  Bible.  The  eloquence  and  the  learning  that  have 
been  on  the  other  side  came  over  to  our  side.  Where  is 
Gibbon's  historical  pen  ?  Where  is  Robespierre's  sword  ? 
Captured  for  God.  "There  is  none  like  that;  give  it 
me!" 

So,  also,  has  it  been  with  the  picture -making  of  the 


872  WEAPONS  CAPTURED. 

ivorld.  We  are  very  anxious  on  this  day  to  have  the 
printing-press  and  the  platform  on  the  side  of  Christianit}^ ; 
but  we  overlook  the  engraver's  knife  and  the  painter's 
pencil.  The  antiquarian  goes  and  looks  at  pictured  ru- 
ins, or  examines  the  chiseled  pillars  of  Thebes,  and  Nine- 
veh, and  Pompeii,  and  then  comes  back  to  tell  us  of  the 
beastliness  of  ancient  art ;  and  it  is  a  fact  now,  that  many 
of  the  finest  specimens — merely  artistically  considered — 
of  sculpture  and  painting  that  are  to  be  found  amidst 
those  ruins  are  not  fit  to  be  looked  at,  and  they  are  lock- 
ed up.  How  Paul  must  have  felt  when,  standing  amidst 
those  impurities  that  stared  on  him  from  the  walls  and 
the  pavements  and  the  bazars  of  Corinth,  he  preached  of 
the  pure  and  holy  Jesus.  The  art  of  the  world  on  the 
side  of  obscenity,  and  crime,  and  death. 

In  later  days  the  Vatican  and  the  cathedrals  were 
crowded  with  religious  pictures.  The  Titians,  and  Ea- 
phaels,  and  Giottos  of  the  world  put  on  canvas  and  ca- 
thedral walls  the  "Baptism  of  Jesus  Christ,"  and  the 
"Last  Supper,"  and  the  "Crucifixion,"  and  the  "Eesur- 
rection,"  and  the  "Last  Judgment;"  but  all  those  pic- 
tures were  prostituted  by  superstition.  Poor  devotees 
come  and  cross  themselves.  They  count  their  beads; 
they  take  the  wafers;  they  glance  at  the  pictured  walls, 
and  they  go  out  unblessed  and  unsaved.  What  to  un- 
clean Henry  YIII.  was  a  beautiful  picture  of  the  Madon- 
na ?  What  to  Lord  Jeffries,  the  unjust  judge,  the  picture 
of  the  "  Last  Judgment?"  What  to  Nero,  the  unwash- 
ed, a  picture  of  the  baptism  in  the  Jordan  ?  The  art  of 
the  world  still  on  the  side  of  superstition  and  death. 
But  that  is  being  changed  now.  The  Christian  artist 
goes  over  to  Eome,  looks  at  the  pictures,  and  brings  back 


WUAPOyS  CAPTCBED.  373 

to  bis  American  studio  much  of  the  power  of  those  old 
masters.  The  Christian  minister  goes  over  to  Yenice, 
looks  at  the  "Crucifixion  of  Christ,"  and  comes  back  to 
his  American  pulpit  to  talk  as  never  before  of  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  Saviour.  The  private  tourist  goes  to  Eome 
and  looks  at  Eaphael's  picture  of  the  "  Last  Judgment." 
The  tears  start,  and  he  goes  back  to  his  room  in  the  ho- 
tel, and  prajs  God  for  preparation  for  that  day  when 

"Shriveling  like  a  parched  scroll, 
The  flaming  heavens  together  roll." 

Our  Sunday-school  newspapers  and  walls  are  adorned 
with  pictures  of  Joseph  in  the  court,  Daniel  in  the  den, 
Shadrach  in  the  fire,  Paul  in  the  shipwreck,  Christ  on 
the  cross.  Oh  that  we  might,  in  our  families,  think  more 
of  the  power  of  Christian  pictures !  One  little  sketch  of 
Samuel  kneeling  in  prayer  will  mean  more  to  your  chil- 
dren than  twenty  sermons  on  devotion.  One  patient  face 
of  Christ  by  the  hand  of  the  artist  will  be  more  to  your 
child  than  fifty  sermons  on  forbearance.  The  art  of  the 
world  is  to  be  taken  for  Christ.  What  has  become  of 
Thorwaldsen's  chisel  and  Ghirlandajo's  crayon?  Cap- 
tured for  the  truth.  '•  There  is  none  like  that ;  give  it 
me!" 

So,  I  remark,  it  is  ivWi  business  acumen  and  tact. 
When  Christ  was  upon  earth,  the  people  that  followed 
him,  for  the  most  part,  had  no  social  position.  There 
was  but  one  man  naturally  brilliant  in  all  the  apostle- 
ship.  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  the  rich  man,  risked  noth- 
ing when  he  offered  a  hole  in  the  rock  for  the  dead 
Christ.  How  many  of  the  merchants  in  Asia  Minor  be- 
friended Jesus?     I  think  of  gnlv  one.      Lvdia.     How- 


S74  WEAPONS  CAPTURED. 

many  of  the  castles  on  the  beach  of  Galilee  entertained 
Christ?      Not  one.      When   Peter   came    to  Joppa,  he 
stopped  with  one  Simon,  a  tanner.     What  power  had 
Christ's  name  on  the  Eoman  Exchange,  or  in  the  bazars 
of  Corinth  ?      None.      The  prominent  men  of  the  day 
did  not  want  to  risk  their  reputation  for  sanity  by  pre- 
tending to  be  one  of  his  followers.      Now  that  is  all 
changed.     Among  the  mightiest  men  in  our  great  cities 
to-day  are  the  Christian  merchants  and  the  Christian 
bankers;  and  if  to-morrow,  at  the  Board  of  Trade,  any 
man  should  get  up  and  malign  the  name  of  Jesus,  he 
would  be  quickly  silenced  or  put  out.    In  the  front  rank 
of  all  our  Christian  workers  to-day  are  the  Christian 
merchants ;  and  the  enterprises  of  the  world  are  coming 
on  the  right  side.     There  was  a  farm  willed  away  some 
years  ago,  all  the  proceeds  of  that  farm  to  go  for  spread- 
ing infidel  books.     Somehow  matters  have  changed,  and 
now  all  the  proceeds  of  that  farm  go  toward  the  mission- 
ary cause.     One  of  the  finest  printing-presses  ever  built 
was  built  for  the  express  purpose  of  publishing  infidel 
tracts  and  books.     Now  it  does  nothing  but  print  Holy 
Bibles.     I  believe  that  the  time  will  come  when,  in  com- 
mercial circles,  the  voice  of  Christ  will  be  the  mightiest 
of  all  voices,  and  the  ships  of  Tarshish  will  bring  pres- 
ents, and  the  Queen  of  Sheba  her  glory,  and  the  wise 
men  of  the  East  their  myrrh  and  frankincense.     I  look 
off  to-night  upon  the  business  men  of  this  city,  and  re- 
joice at  the  prospect  that  their  tact,  and  ingenuity,  and 
talent  will,  after  a  while,  be  brought  into  the  service 
of  Christ.      It  will  be  one  of  the  mightiest  of  weapons. 
"  There  is  none  like  tliat ;  give  it  me !" 

Now,  if  what  I  have  said  be  true,  away  with  all  down- 


W£JAPONS  CAPTURED.  375 

heartedness!  If  science  is  to  be  on  the  riglit  side,  and 
the  traveling  disposition  of  the  world  on  the  right  side, 
and  the  learning  of  the  world  on  the  right  side,  and  the 
picture-making  on  the  right  side,  and  the  business  acu- 
men and  tact  of  the  world  on  the  right  side — thine,  O 
Lord,  is  the  kingdom !  Oh,  fall  into  line,  all  ye  people! 
It  is  a  grand  thing  to  be  in  such  an  army,  and  led  by 
such  a  commander,  and  on  the  way  to  such  a  victor}^ 
If  what  I  have  said  is  true,  then  Christ  is  going  to  gath- 
er up  for  himself  out  of  this  world  every  thing  that  is 
worth  any  thing,  and  there  will  be  nothing  but  the  scum 
left.  We  have  been  rebels,  but  a  proclamation  of  am- 
nesty goes  forth  now  from  the  throne  of  God,  saying, 
"Whosoever  will,  let  him  come."  However  long  yoa 
may  have  wandered,  however  great  your  crimes  may 
have  been,  "  whosoever  will,  let  him  come."  Oh,  that 
to-night  I  could  marshal  all  this  audience  on  the  side  of 
Christ,  and  feel  that  there  would  go  out  of  these  doors 
not  one  enemy  of  Jesus!  Oh,  he  is  a  loving  Jesus!  He 
is  the  best  friend  a  man  ever  had.  He  is  so  kind — he  is 
so  loving,  so  sympathetic.  I  can  not  see  how  you  can 
stay  away  from  him.  Come  now,  and  accept  his  mercy. 
Behold  him  as  he  stretches  out  the  arms  of  his  salva- 
tion, saying,  "Look  unto  me,  all  ye  ends  of  the  earth, 
and  be  ye  saved;  for  I  am  God."  Make  final  choice 
now.  You  will  either  be  willows  planted  by  the  water- 
courses or  the  chaff  which  the  wind  driveth  away. 

16* 


376  THE  FILE  OF  STONES  SFEAKING. 


Y 


THE  PILE  OF  STONES  SPEAKING. 

"What  mean  je  by  these  stones?" — Joshua  iv.,  6. 

OU  are  wiser  than  most  people  if  you  have  not 
mixed  in  your  mind  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea 
and  the  passage  of  the  Jordan.  The  scenery  is  differ- 
ent, and  the  lessons  to  be  learned  from  them  are  differ- 
ent. The  Jordan,  like  the  Mississippi,  has  bluffs  on  the 
one  side  and  flats  on  the  other.  Here  and  there  a  syca- 
more shadows  it;  here  and  there  a  willow  dips  into  it. 
In  the  months  of  April  and  May  the  snows  on  Mount 
Lebanon  thaw  and  flow  down  into  the  valle}^,  and  then 
Jordan  overflows  its  banks.  Then  it  is  wide,  deep,  ra- 
ging, and  impetuous.  At  this  season  of  the  year  I  hear 
the  tramp  of  forty  thousand  armed  men  coming  down  to 
cross  the  river.  You  say,  "Why  do  they  not  go  up 
nearer  the  rise  of  the  river  at  the  old  camel  ford  ?"  Ah! 
my  friends,  it  is  because  it  is  not  safe  to  go  around  when 
the  Lord  tells  us  to  go  ahead.  The  Israelites  had  been 
going  around  forty  years,  and  they  had  enough  of  it. 
I  do  not  know  how  it  is  with  3'ou,  my  brethren,  but  I 
have  always  got  into  trouble  when  I  went  around,  but 
always  got  into  safety  when  I  went  ahead. 

There  spreads  out  the  Jordan,  a  raging  torrent,  much 
of  it  snow-water  just  come  down  from  the  mountain  top ; 
and  I  see  some  of  the  Israelites  shivering  at  the  idea  of 
plunging  in,  and  one  soldier  says  to  his  comrade,  "Jo- 
seph, can  you  swim?"     And  another  says,  "If  we  get 


TUB  PILE  OF  STONES  SPEAKING.  377 

across  tbis  stream  we  will  get  there  with  wet  clothes  and 
with  damaged  armor,  and  the  Canaanites  will  slash  us 
to  pieces  with  their  swords  before  we  get  np  the  other 
bank."  But  it  is  no  time  to  halt.  The  great  host 
marches  on.  The  priests,  carrying  the  ark,  go  ahead ; 
the  people  follow.  I  hear  the  tramp  of  the  great  multi- 
tude. The  priests  have  now  come  within  a  stone's-throw 
of  the  water.  Yet  still  there  is  no  abatement  of  the  flood. 
Now  they  have  come  within  four  or  five  feet  of* the 
stream ;  but  there  is  no  abatement  of  the  flood.  Bad  pros- 
pect !  It  seems  as  if  these  Israelites  who  have  crossed 
the  desert  are  now  going  to  be  drowned  in  sight  of  Ca- 
naan. But  "  Forward !"  is  the  cr}^  The  command  rings 
all  along  the  line  of  the  host.  "  Forward  ]"  JSTow  the 
priests  have  come  within  one  step  of  the  river.  This  time 
they  lift  their  feet  from  the  solid  ground  and  put  them 
down  into  the  raging  stream.  No  sooner  are  their  feet 
there  than  Jordan  flies.  On  the  right  hand,  God  piles 
up  a  great  mountain  of  floods ;  on  the  left,  the  water  flows 
off  toward  the  sea.  The  great  river,  for  hours,  halts  and 
rears.  The  backwaters,  not  being  able  to  flow  over  the 
passing  Israelites,  pile  wave  on  wave,  until  perhaps  a  sea- 
bird  would  find  some  difiiculty  in  scaling  the  water  cliff. 
Now  the  priests  and  all  the  people  have  gone  over  on 
dry  land.  The  water  on  the  left-hand  side  by  this  time 
has  reached  the  sea;  and  now  that  the  miraculous  pas- 
sage has  been  made,  stand  back  and  see  the  stupendous 
pile  of  waters  leap.  God  takes  his  hand  from  that  wall 
of  floods,  and,  like  a  hundred  cataracts,  they  plunge  and 
roar  in  thunderous  triumph  to  the  sea. 

How  are  they  to  celebrate  this  passage?     Shall  it  j^ 
with  music?     I  suj^pose  the  trumpets  and  cymbals  wsrs 


£78  THE  PILE  OF  STONES  SPEAKING. 

all  worn  out  before  this.  Shall  it  be  with  banners  wav- 
ing? Oh  no,  they  are  all  faded  and  torn.  Joshua  cries 
out,  "I  will  tell  you  how  to  celebrate  this:  build  a  monu- 
ment here  to  commemorate  the  event;"  and  every  priest 
puts  a  heavy  stone  on  his  shoulder,  and  marches  out,  and 
drops  that  stone  in  the  divinely-appointed  place.  I  see 
the  pile  growing  in  height,  in  breadth,  in  significance ; 
and  in  after  years  men  went  by  that  spot  and  saw  this 
mon-ument,  and  cried  out  one  to  another,  in  fulfillment 
of  this  prophecy  of  the  text,  "  What  mean  ye  by  these 
stones?" 

Blessed  be  God,  he  did  not  leave  our  church — I  mean 
this  particular  church  —  down  in  the  wilderness!  We 
wandered  about  for  a  while,  and  some  people  said  we  had 
better  take  this  route;  and  others,  that  route.  Some 
said  we  had  better  go  back,  and  some  said  there  were 
sons  of  Anak  in  the  way  that  would  eat  us  up;  and  be- 
fore the  smoke  had  cleared  away  from  the  sky  after  our 
Tabernacle  had  been  consumed,  people  stood  on  the  very 
site  of  the  place,  and  said,  "  This  church  will  never  again 
be  built."  Our  enemies  laughed  among  themselves,  and 
said,  "Aha,  aha!"  Meanwhile  the  rubbish  was  being 
cleared  away,  the  foundation  was  being  laid,  and  the  pil- 
lars were  being  lifted;  and  instead  of  the  temporary 
structure  in  which  we  worshiped,  we  have  this  building, 
in  which  we  hope  the  people  of  God  will  worship  him 
for  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  years.  We  came  down  to 
the  bank  of  the  Jordan ;  we  looked  off  upon  the  waters. 
Some  of  the  sympathy  that  was  expressed  turned  out  to 
be  snowwater  melted  from  the  top  of  Lebanon.  Some 
said,  ^''' You  had  better  not  go  in;  you  will  get  your  feet 
wot        But  we  waded  in,  pastor  and  people,  farther  and 


THE   I'lLh    OF  STOXES   SPEAK L\U.  '^']\) 

fnrther.  and  in  some  way,  the  Lord  only  knows  Low,  we 
got  tbrougb;  and  to- night  1  go  all  around  about  this 
gi'cat  house,  erected  by  your  prayers,  and  sympathies,  and 
sacrifices,  and  cr^^  out  in  the  words  of  my  text,  "  What 
mean  ye  by  tiiese  stones?" 

It  is  an  outrage  to  build  a  house  like  this,  occupying 
so  much  room  in  a  ci-owded  thoroughfare,  and  with  sucli 
vast  toil  and  outla}^,  unless  there  be  some  tremendous 
j't^asons  for  doing  it;  and  so,  my  friends,  I  pursue  you  to- 
night with  the  question  of  my  text,  and  I  demand  of 
these  trustees,  and  of  these  elders,  and  of  all  who  liave 
assisted  in  the  building  of  this  sti'ucture,  "What  mean 
ye  by  these  stones?"' 

In  the  first  place,  we  mean  that  they  shall  be  an  earth- 
ly residence  fur  Christ.  Poor  Jesus!  He  did  not  have 
much  of  a  home  when  he  was  here.  Who  and  wdiere 
is  that  cliild  crying?  It  is  Jesus,  born  in  an  outhouse. 
Where  is  that  hard  breathing?  It  is  Jesus,  asleep  on  a 
rock.  Who  is  that  in  the  back  part  of  the  fishing-smack, 
with  a  sailor's  rough  overcoat  thrown  over  him?  It  is 
Jesus,  the  worn-out  voyager.  Oh  Jesus!  is  it  not  time 
that  thou  hadst  a  house?  We  give  thee  this.  Thou 
didst  give  it  to  us  first,  but  we  give  it  back  to  thee.  It 
is  too  good  for  us,  but  not  half  good  enough  for  thee. 
Oh,  come  in  and  take  the  best  seat  here  !  Walk  up  and 
down  all  these  aisles.  Speak  through  these  organ-pipes. 
Throw  thine  arm  over  us  in  these  arches.  In  the  flaming 
of  these  chandeliers  speak  to  ns,  saying,  "I  am  the  light 
of  the  world."  0  King!  make  this  thine  audience-cham- 
])er.  Here  proclaim  righteousness  and  make  treaties. 
We  clap  our  hands,  we  uncover  our  heads,  we  lift  our 
ensigns,  we  cry  with  multitudinous  acclamationj  until  the 


380  "^HE  PILE  OF  ^TONm  SPEAKING. 

place  rings,  and  the  heavens  listen,  "0  King!  live  for- 
ever!" 

Is  it  not  time  that  he  who  was  born  in  a  stranger's 
house  and  buried  in  a  stranger's  grave  should  have  an 
earthly  house?  Come  in,  0  Jesus!  not  the  corpse  of  a 
buried  Christ,  but  a  radiant  and  triumphant  Jesus,  con- 
queror of  earth,  and  heaven,  and  hell. 

"He  lives,  all  glory  to  his  name, 
He  lives,  my  Jesus,  still  the  same ; 
Oh,  the  sweet  joy  this  sentence  gives  : 
I  know  that  my  Redeemer  lives!" 

Blessed  be  his  glorious  name  forever! 

Again,  if  you  ask  the  question  of  the  text,  ^'What 
mean  ye  by  these  stones?"  I  reply  that  we  mean  the 
communion  of  saints.  Do  you  know  that  there  is  not  a 
single  denomination  of  Christians  in  Brooklyn  that  has 
not  contributed  something  toward  the  building  of  this 
house?  And  if  ever,  standing  in  this  place,  there  shall 
be  a  man  who  shall  try  by  any  thing  he  says  to  stir  up 
bitterness  between  different  denominations  of  Christians, 
may  his  tongue  falter,  and  his  cheek  blanch,  and  his 
heart  stop  !  My  friends,  if  there  is  any  church  on  earth 
where  there  is  a  mingling  of  all  denominations,  it  is  our 
church.  I  just  wish  that  John  Calvin  and  Arminius,  if 
they  are  not  too  busy,  would  come  out  on  the  battle- 
ments and  see  us.  Sometimes  in  our  prayer-meetings  I 
have  heard  brethren  use  phrases  of  a  liturgy,  and  we  knew 
where  they  came  from  ;  and  in  the  same  prayer- meetings 
I  have  heard  brethren  make  audible  ejaculation,  'Amen!" 
"Praise  3^e  the  Lord!"  and  we  did  not  have  to  guess 
twice  where  they  came  from.  When  a  man  knocks  at 
our  church  door,  if  he  comes  from  a  sect  where  they  will 


THE  PILE  OF  STONES  SFEAKING.  381 

not  give  him  a  certificate,  we  say,  "Come  in  by  confes- 
sion of  faith."  While  Adoniram  Judson,  the  Baptist, 
nnd  John  Wesley,  the  Methodist,  and  John  Knox,  the  glo- 
rious old  Scotch  Presbyterian,  are  shaking  hands  in  heav- 
en, all  churches  on  earth  can  afford  to  come  into  close  com- 
munion. "  One  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism."  Oh,  my 
brethren,  we  have  had  enough  of  Big  Bethel  fights — 
Fourteenth  New  York  Eemment  fii<htino-  the  Fifteenth 
Massachusetts  Regiment.  Now  let  all  those  who  are  for 
Christ,  and  stand  on  the  same  side,  go  shoulder  to  shoul- 
der, and  the  church,  instead  of  having  a  sprinkling  of  the 
divine  blessing,  go  clear  under  the  wave,  in  one  glorious 
immersion,  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  I  saw  a  little  child  once,  in  its 
dying  hour,  put  one  arm  around  its  father's  neck,  and 
the  other  arm  around  its  mother's  neck,  and  brino-  them 
close  down  to  its  dying  lips  and  give  a  last  kiss.  Oh,  I 
said,  those  two  persons  will  stand  very  near  to  each  oth- 
er alwaj's  after  such  an  interlocking.  The  dying  Christ 
puts  one  arm  around  this  denomination  of  Christians,  and 
the  other  arm  around  that  denomination  of  Christians, 
and  he  brings  them  down  to  his  dying  lips,  while  he  gives 
them  this  parting  kiss :  "Mj^  peace  I  leave  with  you,  my 
peace  I  give  unto  you." 

"How  swift  the  heavenly  course  they  run, 
"Whose  hearts  and  faith  and  hopes  are  one!" 

I  heard  a  Baptist  minister  once  say  that  he  thought  in 
the  millennium  it  would  be  all  one  great  Baptist  church; 
and  I  heard  a  Methodist  minister  say  that  he  thought  in 
the  great  millennial  day  it  would  be  all  one  great  Meth- 
odist church  ;  and  I  have  known  a  Presbyterian  minister 


882  Tim  PILE  OF  sKjyE.s  sjuuking. 

who  thought  that  in  the  millennial  day  it  would  be  all 
one  great  Presbyterian  church.     Now  I  think  they  are 
all  mistaken.     I  think  the  Milleimial  Church  will' be  a 
composile  church  ;  and  just  as  you  may  tnke  the  best 
parts  of  five  or  six  tunes,  and  under  the  skillful  hands 
of  a  Handel,  Mozart,  or  Beethoven,  entwine  them  into 
one  grand  and  overpowering  symphony,  so,  I  suppose, 
in  the  latter  days  of  the  world,  God  will  take  the  best 
parts  of  all  denominations  of  Christians,  and  weave  them 
into  one  great  ecclesiastical  harmony,  broad  as  the  earth 
and  high  as  the  heavens,  and  that  will  be  the  Church 
of  the  future.     Or,  as  mosaic  is  made  up  of  jasper  and 
agate  and   many  precious  stones  cemented  together- 
mosaic,  a  thousand  feet  square  in  St.  Mark's,  ov  mosaic 
hoisted  into  colossal  seraphim  in  St.  Sophia—so  I  sup- 
})ose  God  will  make,  after  a  while,  one  great  blending 
of  all  creeds,  and  all  faiths,  and  all  Christian  sentiment^ 
the  amethyst  and  the  jasper  and  the  chalcedony  of  all 
different  experiences  and  beliefs,  cemented  side  by  side 
in  the  great  mosaic  of  the  nges;  and  while  the  nations 
look  upon  the  columns  and  architraves  of  that  stupen- 
dous Church  of  the  future,  and  cry  out,  "  What  mean  ye 
by  these  stones?"  there  shall  be  innumerable  voices  to 
respond,  "We  mean  the  Lord  God  omnipotent  reigneth.'' 
I  remai-k  again,  lue  mean  hij  these  stones  the  salvation 
of  the  people.     We  did  not  build  this  church  for  mere 
worldly  reforms,  or  for  an  educational  institution,  or  as 
a  platform  on  which  to  read  essays  and  philosophical 
disquisitions;  but  a  place  for  the  tremendous  work  of 
soul -saving.      Oh,  1  had   rather  be  the  means  in  this 
church  of  having  one  soul  prepared  for  a  joyful  eternity 
than  iive  thousand  souls  prepared  for  mere  "worldly  sue- 


THE  FILE  OF  STONES  SFEAKIXG.  383 

cess!  All  churches  are  in  two  classes,  all  communities 
in  two  classes,  all  the  race  in  two  classes — believers  and 
unbelievers.  Those  going  into  light,  these  going  into 
darkness.  To  augment  the  number  of  the  one  and  sub- 
tract from  the  number  of  the  other,  we  built  this  chuich ; 
and  toward  that  supreme  and  eternal  idea  we  dedicate 
all  our  sermons,  all  our  songs,  all  our  prayers,  all  our 
Sabbath  hand-shakings.  We  want  to  throw  defection 
into  the  enemies'  ranks.  We  want  to  make  them  either 
surrender  unconditionally  to  Christ,  or  else  fly  in  rout, 
scattering  the  way  with  canteens,  blankets,  and  knap- 
sacks. We  want  to  popularize  Christ.  We  would  like 
to  tell  the  story  of  his  love  here,  until  men  would  feel 
that  they  had  rather  die  than  live  another  hour  without 
his  sympathy  and  love  and  mercy.  We  want  to  rouse 
up  an  enthusiasm  for  him  greater  than  was  felt  for  Na- 
thaniel Lyon  when  he  rode  along  the  ranks  —  greater 
than  was  exhibited  for  AYellington  wdien  he  came  back 
from  Waterloo — greater  than  was  expressed  for  ISTapo- 
leon  when  he  stepped  ashore  from  Elba.  We  really  be- 
lieve in  this  place  Christ  will  enact  the  same  scenes  that 
were  enacted  by  him  when  he  landed  in  the  Orient;  and 
there  will  be  such  an  opening  of  blind  eyes  and  unstop- 
ping of  deaf  ears,  and  casting  out  of  unclean  spirits — 
such  silencing  bestormed  Gennesarets,  as  shall  make  this 
house  memorable  five  hundred  years  after  you  and  I  are 
dead  and  forgotten.  Oh,  my  friends,  we  want  but  one 
revival  in  this  church  :  that  beginning  now  and  running 
on  to  the  day  when  the  chisel  of  Time,  that  brings  down 
even  St.  Paul's  and  the  Pyramids,  shall  bring  this  house 
into  the  dust.  We  want  the  host  of  newly-converted 
souls  who  shall  next  Sabbath  morning  pass  in  review 


384  THE  FILE  OF  STONES  SPEAKING. 

by  tbis  sacramental  table — we  want  them  only  the  first 
regiment  of  a  great  army  that  will  take  tbis  place  on 
their  way  to  glory. 

But  since  there  are  so  many  uncertainties  ahead,  per- 
haps we  had  better  begin  now  the  work  of  salvation. 
Oh  that  this  day  of  dedication  might  be  the  day  of 
emancipation  to  all  imprisoned  souls!  My  friends,  do 
not  make  the  blunder  of  the  ship-carpenters  in  Noah's 
time,  wlio  helped  to  build  the  ark,  but  did  not  get  into 
it!  God  forbid  that  you  who  have  been  so  generous  in 
building  this  church  should  not  get  under  its  saving  in- 
fluence! "Come,  thou  and  all  thy  house,  into  the  ark." 
Do  you  think  a  man  is  safe  out  of  Christ?  Wot  one 
day,  not  one  hour,  not  one  minute,  not  one  second. 
Three  or  four  years  ago,  you  remember,  a  rail  train 
broke  down  a  bridge  on  the  way  to  Albany,  and  after 
the  catastrophe  they  were  looking  around  among  the 
timbers  of  the  crushed  bridge  and  the  fallen  train,  and 
found  the  conductor.  He  was  dying,  and  had  only 
strength  to  say  one  thing,  and  that  was,  "  Hoist  the  flag 
for  the  next  train."  So  there  come  up  to  us  to-night 
voices  from  the  eternal  chasm  of  darkness,  and  sin,  and 
death,  telling  us,  "You  can  not  save  me,  but  save  those 
who  come  after  me.  Lift  the  warning.  Blow  the  trump- 
et.    Give  the  alarm.     Hoist  the  flag  for  the  next  train." 

Oh  that  to-night  my  Lord  Jesus  would  sweep  his  arm 
around  this  great  audience,  and  take  you  all  to  his  holy 
heart !  You  will  never  see  so  good  a  time  for  personal 
consecration  as  now.  "  What  mean  ye  by  these  stones?" 
We  mean  your  redemption  from  sin,  and  death,  and  hell, 
by  the  power  of  an  omnipotent  Gospel.  Lord  God  Al- 
mighty, with  thy  presence  now  shake  this  house  from 


THE  PILE  OF  STONES  SPEAKING.  355 

foundation  to  cap-stone  I  Stretch  out  thine  arm.  Here 
is  the  sacrifice.     Lord  God  of  Elijah,  answer  as  bj  fire. 

Well,  the  Brooklyn  Tabernacle  is  erected  again.  The 
Sabbath  after  the  old  Tabernacle  was  burned,  in  the 
Academy  of  Music,  in  December,  1872, 1  prophesied  this 
building.  I  said  it  would  be  dedicated  in  1873.  I  made 
a  mistake  of  only  two  months.  Would  God  that  had 
been  the  largest  mistake  I  had  ever  made!  But  now 
that  it  is  done,  it  more  than  pleases  us.  We  came  here 
to-night  not  to  dedicate  it.  That  was  done  this  morning 
by  an  illustrious  company  of  Christian  ministers  of  ev- 
ery name ;  and  that  eloquent  and  thrilling  sermon  still 
rings  through  and  through  our  soul,  telling  us  that  "  the 
glory  of  the  second  house  shall  be  greater  than  that  of 
the  first."  God  grant  it !  But  I  am  here  to  preach  the 
dedication  sermon  of  all  your  hearts.  In  the  Episcopal 
and  Methodist  churches  they  have  a  railing  around  the 
altar,  and  the  people  come  and  kneel  down  at  that  rail- 
ing and  get  the  sacramental  blessing.  Well,  mj^  friends, 
it  would  take  more  than  a  night  to  gather  you  in  circles 
around  this  altar.  Then  just  bow  where  you  are  for  the 
blessing.  Aged  men,  this  is  the  last  church  you.  will 
ever  dedicate.  May  the  God  who  comforted  Jacob  the 
patriarch,  and  Paul  the  aged,  make  this  house  to  you 
the  gate  of  heaven ;  and  when,  in  your  old  days,  you 
put  on  your  spectacles  to  read  the  hymn  or  the  Scripture 
lesson,  may  you  get  preparation  for  that  land  where  yo\x 
shall  no  more  see  through  a  glass  darkly!  May  the 
warm  sunshine  of  heaven  thaw  the  snow  off  your  fore- 
heads! 

Men  in  mid-life,  do  you  know  that  this  is  the  place 
where  you   are  going  to  get  your  fitigues  rested,  and 


386  THE  FILE  OF  STONES  SPEAKING. 

your  sorrows  appeased,  and  your  souls  saved  ?  Do  you 
know  that  at  this  altar  your  sons  and  daughters  will 
take  upon  themselves  the  vows  of  the  Christian,  and 
from  this  place  you  will  carry  out,  some  of  you,  your 
precious  dead?  Between  this  baptismal  font  and  this 
communion-table  you  will  have  some  of  the  tenderest 
of  life's  experiences.  God  bless  you,  old  and  young 
and  middle-aged !  The  money  you  have  given  to  this 
church  to-day  will  be,  I  hope,  the  best  financial  invest- 
ments you  have  ever  made.  Your  worldly  investments 
may  depend  upon  the  whims  of  Wall  Street  or  the  hon- 
esty of  business  associates;  but  the  money  you  have 
given  to  the  house  of  the  Lord  shall  yield  you  large  per- 
centage, and  declare  eternal  dividends  in  the  day  when, 
instead  of  being  the  story  of  one  burning  church,  it  shall 
be  the  tragedy  of  a  world  on  fire ' 


CHMIST  OUR  ISONfi.  -357 


CHEIST  OUR  SONG. 

"The  Lord  is  my  strength  and  song." — Psalm  cxviii.,  14. 

THE  most  fascinating  theme  for  a  heart  properly  at- 
tuned is  the  Saviour.  There  is  something  in  the 
morning  light  to  suggest  him,  and  something  in  the  even- 
ing shadow  to  speak  his  praise.  The  flower  breathes  him, 
the  star  shines  him,  the  cascade  proclaims  him,  all  the 
voices  of  nature  chant  him.  Whatever  is  grand,  bright, 
and  beautiful,  if  you  only  listen  to  it,  will  speak  his  praise. 
So  now,  when  I  come  in  the  summer-time  and  pluck  a 
flower,  I  think  of  Him  who  is  "the  Rose  of  Sharon  and 
the  Lily  of  the  Yalley."  When  I  see  in  the  fields  a  lamb, 
I  say,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the 
sin  of  the  world."  When,  in  very  hot  weather,  I  come 
under  a  projecting  cliff,  I  say, 

"  Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  thee!" 

Over  the  old-fashioned  pulpits  there  vt^as  a  sounding- 
board.  The  voice  of  the  minister  rose  to  the  sounding- 
board,  and  then  was  struck  back  again  upon  the  ears  of 
the  people.  And  so  the  ten  thousand  voices  of  earth  ris- 
ing up  find  the  heavens  a  sounding-board  which  strikes 
back  to  the  ear  of  all  the  nations  the  praises  of  Christ. 
The  heavens  tell  his  glory,  and  the  earth  shows  his  handy- 
work.  The  Bible  thrills  with  one  great  story  of  redemp- 
tion.    Upon  a  blasted  and  faded  paradise  it  poured  the 


888  CHRIST  OUM  SON(^. 

light  of  a  glorious  restoration.  It  looked  upon  Abraham 
from  the  ram  caught  in  the  thicket.  It  spoke  in  the 
bleating  of  the  herds  driven  down  to  Jerusalem  for  sac- 
rifice. It  put  infinite  pathos  into  the  speech  of  uncouth 
fishermen.  It  lifted  Paul  into  the  seventh  heaven  ;  and 
it  broke  upon  the  ear  of  St.  John  with  the  brazen  trump- 
ets and  the  doxology  of  the  elders,  and  the  rushing  wings 
of  the  seraphim. 

Instead  of  waiting  until  you  get  sick  and  worn  out  be- 
fore you  speak  the  praise  of  Christ,  while  your  heart  is 
happiest,  and  your  step  is  lightest,  and  your  fortunes 
smile,  and  your  pathway  blossoms,  and  the  overarching 
heavens  drop  upon  you  their  benediction,  speak  the 
praises  of  Jesus. 

The  old  Greek  orators,  when  they  saw  their  audiences 
inattentive  and  slumbering,  had  one  word  with  which 
they  would  rouse  them  up  to  the  greatest  enthusiasm. 
In  the  midst  of  their  orations,  they  would  stop  and  cry 
out  "  Marathon !"  and  the  people's  enthusiasm  would  be 
unbounded.  My  hearers,  though  you  may  have  been 
borne  down  with  sin,  and  though  trouble,  and  trials,  and 
temptation  may  have  come  upon  you,  and  you  feel  to- 
night hardly  like  looking  up,  methinks  there  is  one  grand, 
royal,  imperial  word  that  ought  to  rouse  your  soul  to  in- 
finite rejoicing,  and  that  word  is  "Jesus!" 

Taking  the  suggestion  of  the  text,  I  shall  speak  to  you 
of  Christ  our  Song.  I  remark,  in  the  first  place,  that 
Christ  ought  to  he  the  cradle -song.  What  our  mothers 
sang  to  us  when  they  put  us  to  sleep  is  singing  yet.  We 
may  have  forgotten  the  words;  but  they  went  into  the 
fibre  of  our  soul,  and  will  forever  be  a  part  of  it.  It  is 
not  50  much  what  you  formally  teach  your  children  as 


CHRIST  OUR  SONG.  389 

what  you  sing  to  them.  A  hymn  has  wings,  and  can  fly 
everywhither.  One  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  you 
are  dead,  and  "Old  Mortality"  has  worn  out  his  chisel 
in  re-cutting  your  name  on  the  tombstone,  your  great- 
grandchildren will  be  singing  the  song  which  this  after- 
noon you  sang  to  your  little  ones  gathered  about  your 
knee.  There  is  a  place  in  Switzerland  where,  if  you  dis- 
tinctly utter  your  voice,  there  come  back  ten  or  fifteen 
distinct  echoes;  and  every  Christian  song  sung  by  a 
mother  in  the  ear  of  her  child  shall  have  ten  thousand 
echoes  coming  back  from  all  the  gates  of  heaven.  Oh,  if 
mothers  only  knew  the  power  of  this  sacred  spell,  how 
much  oftener  the  little  ones  would  be  gathered,  and  all 
our  homes  would  chime  with  the  songs  of  Jesus ! 

We  want  some  counteracting  influence  upon  our  chil- 
dren. The  very  moment  your  child  steps  into  the  street, 
he  steps  into  the  path  of  temptation.  There  are  foul- 
mouthed  children  who  would  like  to  besoil  your  little 
ones.  It  will  not  do  to  keep  your  boys  and  girls  in  the 
house  and  make  them  house -plants;  they  must  have 
fresh  air  and  recreation.  God  save  your  children  from 
the  scathing,  blasting,  damning  influence  of  the  streets! 
I  know  of  no  counteracting  influence  but  the  power  of 
Christian  culture  and  example.  Hold  before  your  little  \ll 
ones  the  pure  life  of  Jesus ;  let  that  name  be  the  word 
that  shall  exorcise  evil  from  their  hearts.  Give  to  your 
instruction  all  the  fascination  of  music,  morning,  noon, 
and  night;  let  it  be  Jesus,  the  cradle-song.  This  is  im- 
portant if  your  children  grow  up ;  but  perhaps  they 
may  not.  Their  pathway  may  be  short.  Jesus  may  be 
wanting  that  child.  Then  there  will  be  a  soundless  step 
in  the  dwelling,  and  the  youthful  pulse  will  begin  to 


890  CHMIST  OUR  SOKO. 

flutter,  and  little  hands  will  be  lifted  for  help.     You  can 
not  help.     And  a  great  agony  will  pinch  at  your  heart, 
and  the  cradle  will  be  empty,  and  the  nursery  will  be 
empty,  and  the  world  will  be  empty,  and  your  soul  will 
be  empty.     No  little  feet  standing  on  the  stairs.     No 
toys  scattered  on  the  carpet.     No  quick  following  from 
room  to  room.     No  strange  and  wondering  questions. 
No  upturned  face,  with  laughing  blue  eyes,  come  for  a 
kiss ;  but  only  a  grave,  and  a  wreath  of  white  blossoms 
on  the  top  of  it ;  and  bitter  desolation,  and  a  sighing  at 
night-fall  with  no  one  to  put  to  bed,  and  a  wet  pillow, 
and  a  grave,  and  a  wreath  of  white  blossoms  on  the  top 
of  it.     The  heavenly  Shepherd  will  take  that  lamb  safe- 
ly anyhow,  whether  you  have  been  faithful  or  unfliithful ; 
but  would  it  not  have  been  pleasanter  if  you  could  have 
heard  from  those  lips  the  praises  of  Christ?     I  never 
read  any  thing  more  beautiful  than  this  about  a  child's 
departure.     The  account  said:  "She  folded  her  hands, 
kissed  her  mother  good-bye,  sang  her  hymn,  turned  her 
face  to  the  wall,  said  her  little  prayer,  and  then  died." 

Oh,  if  I  could  gather  up  in  one  paragraph  the  last 
words  of  the  little  ones  who  have  gone  out  from  all 
these  Christian  circles,  and  I  could  picture  the  calm 
looks,  and  the  folded  hands,  and  sweet  departure,  me- 
thinks  it  w^ould  be  grand  and  beautiful  as  one  of  Heav- 
en's great  doxologies !  In  my  parish,  in  Philadelphia,  a 
little  child  was  departing.  She  had  been  sick  all  her  , 
days,  and  a  cripple.  It  was  noonday  when  she  went, 
and,  as  the  shadow  of  death  gathered  on  her  eyelid,  she 
thought  it  was  evening  and  time  to  go  to  bed,  and  so 
she  said,  "Good -night,  papal  Good -night,  mamma!'' 
And  then  she  was  gone!     It  was  "good-night"  to  pain,    ' 


CHRIST  OUR  SONG,  391 

and  "  good-niglit "  to  tears,  and  "good-night"  to  death,  | 
and  "good-night"  to  earth;  but  it  was  "good-morning" 
to   Jesus — it  was  "good-morning"  to   heaven.     I  can 
think  of  no  cradle-song  more  beautiful  than  Jesus. 

I  next  speak  of  Christ  as  the  old  manh  song.  Quick 
music  loses  its  charm  for  the  aged  ear.  The  school-girl 
asks  for  a  schottisch  or  a  glee ;  but  her  grandmother  asks 
for  "  Balerma  "  or  the  "  Portuguese  Hymn."  Fifty  years 
of  trouble  have  tamed  the  spirit,  and  the  keys  of  the 
music -board  must  have  a  solemn  tread.  Though  the 
voice  may  be  tremulous,  so  that  grandfather  will  not 
trust  it  in  church,  still  he  has  the  psalm-book  open  be- 
fore him,  and  he  sings  with  his  soul.  He  hums  his 
grandchild  asleep  with  the  same  tune  he  sang  forty  years 
ago  in  the  old  country  meeting-house.  Some  day  the 
choir  sings  a  tune  so  old  that  the  young  people  do  not 
know  it;  but  it  starts  the  tears  down  the  cheek  of  the 
aged  man,  for  it  reminds  him  of  the  revival  scene  in 
which  he  participated,  and  of  the  radiant  faces  that  long 
since  went  to  dust,  and  of  the  gray-haired  minister  lean- 
ing over  the  pulpit,  and  sounding  the  good  tidings  of 
great  joy. 

I  was  one  Thanksgiving- day  in  my  pulpit,  in  Syra- 
cuse, New  York,  and  Rev.  Daniel  Waldo,  at  ninety-eight 
years  of  age,  stood  beside  me.  The  choir  sang  a  tune. 
I  said,  "I  am  sorry  they  sang  that  new  tune;  nobody 
seem.s  to  know  it."  "  Bless  you,  my  son,"  said  the  old 
man,  "  I  heard  that  seventy  years  ago !" 

There  was  a  song  to-day  that  touched  the  life  of  the 
aged  with  holy  fire,  and  kindled  a  glory  on  their  vision 
that  our  younger  eye-sight  can  not  see.  It  was  the  song 
of  salvation— Jesus,  who  fed  them  all  their  lives  long; 

17 


392  CHRIST  OUR  SONG. 

Jesus,  who  wiped  away  their  tears ;  Jesus,  who  stood  by 
them  when  all  else  failed;  Jesus,  in  whose  name  their 
marriage  was  consecrated,  and  whose  resurrection  has 
poured  light  upon  the  graves  of  their  departed.  "Do) 
you  know  me?"  said  the  wife  to  her  aged  husband  who! 
was  dying,  his  mind  already  having  gone  out.  He  said 
"No."  And  the  son  said,  "Father,  do  you  know  me?" 
He  said  "No."  The  daughter  said,  "Father,  do  you/ 
know  me?"  He  said  "No."  The  minister  of  the  Gos- 
pel standing  by,  said,  "Do  you  know  Jesus?"  "Oh^ 
yes,"  he  said,  "  I  know  him,  '  chief  among  ten  thousand,  | 
the  one  altogether  lovely!'  "  Blessed  the  Bible  in  which 
spectacled  old  age  reads  the  promise,  "I  will  never  leave 
you,  never  forsake  you !"  Blessed  the  staff  on  which 
the  worn-out  pilgrim  totters  on  toward  the  welcome  of 
his  Eedeemer !  Blessed  the  hymn-book  in  which  the 
faltering  tongue  and  the  failing  eyes  find  Jesus,  the  old 
man's  song!  When  my  mother  had  been  put  away  for 
the  resurrection,  we,  the  children,  came  to  the  old  home- 
stead, and  each  one  wanted  to  take  away  a  memento  of 
her  who  had  loved  us  so  long,  and  loved  us  so  well.  I 
think  I  took  away  the  best  of  all  the  mementoes;  it  was 
the  old-fashioned,  round-glass  spectacles,  through  which 
she  used  to  read  her  Bible,  and  I  put  them  on,  but  they 
were  too  old  for  me,  and  I  could  not  see  across  the  room. 
But  through  them  I  could  see  back  to  childhood,  and 
forward  to  the  hills  of  heaven,  where  the  ankles  that 
were  stiff  with  age  have  become  limber  again,  and  the 
spirit,  with  restored  eye-sight,  stands  in  rapt  exultation, 
crying,  "  This  is  heaven  !" 

I  speak  to  you  again  of  Jesus  as  the  night-song.     Job 
speaks  of  him  who  giveth  songs  in  the  night.     John 


CHRIST  OVB  SONG.  893 

Welch,  the  old  Scotch  minister,  used  to  put  a  plaid 
across  his  bed  on  cold  nights,  and  some  one  asked  him 
why  he  put  that  there.  He  said,  "  Oh,  sometimes  in  the 
night  I  want  to  sing  the  praise  of  Jesus,  and  to  get  down 
and  pray;  then  I  just  take  that  plaid  and  wrap  it  around 
me,  to  keep  myself  from  the  cold."  Songs  in  the  night! 
Night  of  trouble  has  come  down  upon  many  of  you. 
Commercial  losses  put  out  one  star,  slanderous  abuse 
put  out  another  star,  domestic  bereavement  has  put  out 
a  thousand  lights,  and  gloom  has  been  added  to  gloom, 
and  chill  to  chill,  and  sting  to  sting,  and  one  midnight 
has  seemed  to  borrow  the  fold  from  another  midnight 
to  wrap  itself  in  more  unbearable  darkness;  but  Christ 
has  spoken  peace  to  your  heart,  and  you  can  sing, 

"Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul, 

Let  me  to  thy  bosom  fly, 
While  the  billows  near  me  roll, 

While  the  tempest  still  is  high. 
Hide  me,  oh,  my  Saviour !  hide 

Till  the  storm  of  life  is  past, 
Safe  into  the  haven  guide ; 

Oh,  receive  my  soul  at  last." 

Songs  in  the  night!  Songs  in  the  night!  For  the 
sick,  who  have  no  one  to  turn  the  hot  pillow,  no  one  to 
put  the  taper  on  the  stand,  no  one  to  put  ice  on  the  tem- 
ple, or  pour  out  the  soothing  anodyne,  or  utter  one 
cheerful  word — yet  songs  in  the  night!  For  the  poor, 
who  freeze  in  the  winter's  cold,  and  swelter  in  the  sum- 
mer's heat,  and  munch  the  hard  crusts  that  bleed  the  sore 
gums,  and  shiver  under  blankets  that  can  not  any  long- 
er be  patched,  and  tremble  because  rent-day  is  come  and 
they  may  be  set  out  on  the  sidewalk,  and  looking  into 
the  starved  face  of  the  child  and  seeing  famine  there  and 


394  CKRIST  OUR  SONO. 

death  there,  coming  home  from  the  baker}^,  and  saying, 
in  the  presence  of  the  little  famished  ones,  "  Oh,  my  God, 
flour  has  gone  up !"     Yet  songs  in  the  night !     Songs  in 
the  night !     For  the  widow  who-  goes  to  get  the  back-pay 
of  her  husband  slain  by  the  "  sharp-shooters,"  and  knows 
it  is  the  last  help  she  will  have,  moving  out  of  a  com- 
fortable home  in  desolation,  death  turning  back  from  the 
exhausting  cough,  and  the  pale  cheek,  and  the  lustreless 
eye,  and  refusing  all  relief      Yet  songs  in  the  night! 
Songs  in  the  night !     For  the  soldier  in  the  field-hospital,  1/ 
no  surgeon  to  bind  up  the  gun-shot  fracture,  no  water  1) 
for  the  hot  lips,  no  kind  hand  to  brush  away  the  flies  |\ 
from  the  fresh  wound,  no  one  to  take  the  loving  fare- 1  ) 
well,  the  groaning  of  others  poured  into  his  own  groan,)  • 
the  blasphemy  of  others  plowing  up  his  own  spirit,  the 
condensed  bitterness  of  dying  away  from  home  among 
strangers.    Yet  songs  in  the  night!     Songs  in  the  night! 
"Ah !"  said  one  dying  soldier,  "tell  my  mother  that  last  J 1 
night  there  was  not  one  cloud  between   my  soul  and  '  / 
Jesus."     Songs  in  the  night!     Songs  in  the  night! 

This  Sabbath-day  came.  From  the  altars  of  ten  thou- 
sand churches  has  smoked  up  the  savor  of  sacrifice. 
Ministers  of  the  Gospel  preached  in  plain  English,  in 
broad  Scotch,  in  flowing  Italian,  in  harsh  Choctaw. 
God's  people  assembled  in  Hindoo  temple,  and  Mora- 
vian church,  and  Quaker  meeting-house,  and  sailors' 
Bethel,  and  king's  chapel,  and  high -towered  cathedral. 
They  sang,  and  the  song  floated  off  amidst  the  spice 
groves,  or  struck  the  icebergs,  or  floated  oft'  into  the 
"Western  pines,  or  was  drowned  in  the  clamor  of  the 
great  cities.  Lumbermen  sang  it,  and  the  factory-girls, 
and  the  children  in  the  Sabbath-class,  and  the  trained 


CHRIST  OUR  SONG.  395 

choirs  in  great  assemblages.  Trappers,  with  the  same 
voice  with  which  they  shouted  yesterday  in  the  stag- 
hunt,  and  mariners  with  throats  that  only  a  few  days 
ago  sounded  in  the  hoarse  blast  of  the  sea- hurricane, 
they  sang  it.  One  theme  for  the  sermons.  One  burden 
for  the  song.  Jesus  for  the  invocation.  Jesus  for  the 
Scripture  lesson.  Jesus  for  the  baptismal  font.  Jesus 
for  the  sacramental  cup.  Jesus  for  the  benediction. 
But  the  day  has  gone.  It  rolled  away  on  swift  wheels 
of  light  and  love.  Again,  the  churches  are  lighted. 
Tides  of  people  again  setting  down  the  streets.  Whole 
families  coming  up  the  church  aisle.  We  must  have  one 
more  sermon,  two  prayers,  three  songs,  and  one  benedic- 
tion. What  shall  we  preach?  What  shall  we  read? 
Let  it  be  Jesus,  every  body  says;  let  it  be  Jesus.  We 
must  have  one  more  song  to-night.  What  shall  ij 
be,  children?  Aged  men  and  women,  what  shall  it  be?' 
Young  men  and  maidens,  what  shall  it  be?  If  you 
dared  to  break  the  silence  of  this  auditory,  there  would 
come  up  thousands  of  quick  and  jubilant  voices,  crying 
out,  "Let  it  be  Jesus!  Jesus!  Jesus!" 
■  We  sing  his  birth — the  barn  that  sheltered  him,  the 
mother  that  nursed  him,  the  cattle  that  fed  beside  him, 
the  angels  that  woke  up  the  shepherds,  shaking  light 
over  the  midnight  hills.  We  sing  his  ministry  —  the 
tears  he  wiped  away  from  the  eyes  of  the  orphans;  the 
lame  men  that  forgot  their  crutches;  the  damsel  who  from 
the  bier  bounded  out  into  the  sunlight,  her  locks  shaking 
down  over  the  flushed  cheek ;  the  hungry  thousands  who 
broke  the  bread  as  it  blossomed  into  larger  loaves — that 
miracle  by  which  a  boy  with  five  loaves  and  two  fishes 
became  the  sutler  for  a  whole  array.     We  sing  his  sor- 


396  CHRIST  OUR  SOJ^G. 

rows — his  stone-bruisecl  feet,  his  aching  heart,  his  mount- 
ain loneliness,  his  desert  hunger,  his  storm-pelted  body, 
the  eternity  of  anguish  that  shot  through  his  last  mo- 
ments, and  the  immeasurable  ocean  of  torment  that 
heaved  up  against  his  cross  in  one  foaming,  wrathful,  om- 
nipotent surge,  the  sun  dashed  out,  and  the  dead,  shroud- 
wrapped,  breaking  open  their  sepulchres,  and  rushing 
out  to  see  what  was  the  matter.  We  sing  his  resurrec- 
tion— the  guard  that  could  not  keep  him ;  the  sorrow  of 
his  disciples;  the  clouds  piling  up  on  either  side  in  pil- 
lared splendors  as  he  went  through,  treading  the  path- 
less air,  higher  and  higher,  until  he  came  to  the  foot  of  the 
throne,  and  all  heaven  kept  jubilee  at  the  return  of  the 
conqueror.  Oh  !  is  there  any  song  more  appropriate  for 
a  Sabbath  night  than  this  song  of  Jesus?  Let  the  pass- 
ers-by in  the  street  hear  it,  let  the  angels  of  God  carry  it 
amidst  the  thrones.  Sound  it  out  through  the  darkness : 
Jesus  the  night-song,  appropriate  for  any  hour,  but  es- 
pecially sweet,  and  beautiful,  and  blessed  on  a  Sabbath 
night. 

I  say  once  more,  Christ  is  the  everlasting  song.  The 
very  best  singers  sometimes  get  tired;  the  strongest 
throats  sometimes  get  weary,  and  many  who  sang  very 
sweetly  do  not  sing  now ;  but  I  hope  by  the  grace  of 
God  we  will,  after  a  while,  go  up  and  sing  the  praises  of 
Christ  where  we  will  never  be  weary.  You  know  there 
are  some  songs  that  are  especially  appropriate  for  the 
home  circle.  They  stir  the  soul,  they  start  the  tears, 
they  turn  the  heart  in  on  itself,  and  keep  sounding  after 
the  tune  has  stopped,  like  some  cathedral-bell  which,  long 
after  the  tap  of  the  brazen  tongue  has  ceased,  keeps  throb- 
bing on  the  air.     Well,  it  will  be  a  home  song  in  heaven; 


CHRIST  OUR  SONG.  397 

all  the  sweeter  because  those  who  sang  with  us  in  the 
domestic  circle  on  earth  shall  join  that  great  harmony. 

"Jerusalem,  ray  happy  home, 
Name  ever  dear  to  me  ; 
"When  shall  my  labors  have  an  end 
In  joy  and  peace  in  thee  ?" 

On  earth  we  sang  harvest  songs  as  the  wheat  came 
into  the  barn,  and  the  barracks  were  filled.  You  know 
there  is  no  such  time  on  a  farm  as  when  they  get  the 
crops  in ;  and  so  in  heaven  it  will  be  a  harvest  song  on 
the  part  of  those  who  on  earth  sowed  in  tears  and  reaped 
in  jo}^  Lift  up  your  heads,  ye  everlasting  gates,  and  let 
the  sheaves  come  in !  Angels  shout  all  through  the 
heavens,  and  multitudes  come  down  the  hills  crying, 
^^Harvest-home  !  harvest-home  !  " 

There  is  nothinor  more  bewitching:  to  one's  ear  than 
the  song  of  sailors  far  out  at  sea,  whether  in  day  or  night, 
as  they  pull  away  at  the  ropes — not  much  sense  often  in 
the  words  they  utter,  but  the  music  is  thrilling.  So  the 
song  in  heaven  will  be  a  sailor's  song.  They  were  voy- 
agers once,  and  thought  they  could  never  get  to  shore, 
and  before  they  could  get  things  snug  and  trim  the  cy- 
clone struck  them.  But  now  they  are  safe.  Once  they 
went  with  damaged  rigging,  guns  of  distress  booming 
through  the  storm ;  but  the  pilot  came  aboard,  and  he 
brought  them  into  the  harbor.  Now  they  sing  of  the 
breakers  past,  the  light-houses  that  showed  them  where 
to  sail,  tlie  pilot  that  took  them  through  the  straits,  the 
eternal  shore  on  which  they  landed. 

Ay,  it  wnll  be  the  children's  song.  You  know  very 
well  that  the  vast  majority  of  our  race  die  in  infancy, 
and  it  is  estimated  that  sixteen  thousand  millions  of  the 


398  CHRIST  oun  song. 

little  ones  are  standing  before  God.  When  they  shall 
rise  up  about  the  throne  to  sing,  the  millions  and  the 
millions  of  the  little  ones — ah!  that  will  be  music  for 
you !  These  played  in  the  streets  of  Babylon  and  Thebes; 
these  plucked  lilies  from  the  foot  of  Olivet  while  Christ 
was  preaching  about  them ;  these  waded  in  Siloam ; 
these  were  victims  of  Herod's  massacre ;  these  were 
thrown  to  crocodiles  or  into  the  fire;  these  came  up  from 
Christian  homes,  and  these  were  foundlings  on  the  city 
commons  —  children  everywhere  in  all  that  land;  chil- 
dren in  the  towers,  children  on  the  seas  of  glass,  children 
on  the  battlements.  Ah  !  if  you  do  not  like  children,  do 
not  go  there.  They  are  in  vast  majority;  and  what  a 
song  when  they  lift  it  around  about  the  throne ! 

The  Christian  singers  and  composers  of  all  ages  will 
be  there  to  join  in  that  song.  Thomas  Hastings  will  be 
there.  Lowell  Mason  will  be  there.  Beethoven  and  Mo- 
zart will  be  there.  They  who  sounded  the  cymbals  and 
the  trumpets  in  the  ancient  temples  will  be  there.  The 
forty  thousand  harpers  that  stood  at  the  ancient  dedi- 
cation will  be  there.  The  two  hundred  singers  that  as- 
sisted on  that  day  will  be  there.  Patriarchs  who  lived 
amidst  threshing-floors,  shepherds  who  watched  amidst 
Chaldean  hills,  prophets  who  walked,  with  long  beards 
and  coarse  apparel,  pronouncing  woe  against  ancient 
abominations,  will  meet  the  more  recent  martyrs  who 
went  up  with  leaping  cohorts  of  fire;  and  some  will 
speak  of  the  Jesus  of  whom  i\\Qj  prophesied,  and  others 
of  the  Jesus  for  whom  they  died.  Oh,  what  a  song  I  It 
came  to  John  upon  Patmos;  it  came  to  Calvin  in  the 
prison ;  it  dropped  to  John  Knox  in  the  fire ;  and  some- 
times that  song  has  come  to  your  ear,  perhaps,  for  I  really 


CHRIST  OUR  SONO.  399 

do  think  it  sometimes  breaks  over  the  battlements  of 
heaven. 

A  Christian  woman,  the  wife  of  a  minister  of  the  Gos- 
pel, was  dying  in  the  parsonage  near  the  old  church, 
where  on  Saturday  night  the  choir  used  to  assemble  and 
rehearse  for  the  following  Sabbath,  and  she  said,  '*How 
strangely  sweet  the  choir  rehearses  to-night;  they  have 
been  rehearsing  there  for  an  hour."  "No,"  said  some 
one  about  her,  "  the  choir  is  not  rehearsing  to-night." 
"Yes,"  she  said,  "I  know  they  are;  I  hear  them  sing; 
how  very  sweetly  they  sing  I"  Now  it  was  not  a  choir  of 
earth  that  she  heard,  but  the  choir  of  heaven.  I  think 
that  Jesus  sometimes  sets  ajar  the  door  of  heaven,  and  a 
passage  of  that  rapture  greets  our  ears.  The  minstrels 
of  heaven  strike  such  a  tremendous  strain,  the  walls  of 
jasper  can  not  hold  it. 

I  wonder — and  this  is  a  question  I  have  been  asking 
myself  all  the  evening — Will  you  sing  that  song?  Will 
I  sing  it?  Not  unless  our  sins  are  pardoned,  and  we 
learn  now  to  sing  the  praise  of  Christ,  will  we  ever  sing 
it  there.  The  first  great  concert  that  I  ever  attended 
was  in  New  York,  when  Julien,  in  the  "  Crystal  Palace," 
stood  before  hundreds  of  singers  and  hundreds  of  players 
upon  instruments.  Some  of  you  may  remember  that  oc- 
casion ;  it  was  the  first  one  of  the  kind  at  which  I  was 
present,  and  I  shall  never  forget  it.  I  saw  that  one  man 
standing,  and  with  the  hand  and  foot  wield  that  great 
harmony,  beating  the  time.  It  was  to  me  overwhelming. 
But  oh,  the  grander  scene  when  they  shall  come  from  the 
East,  and  from  the  West,  and  from  the  North,  and  from 
the  South,  "a  great  multitude  that  no  man  can  number," 
into  the  temple  of  the  skies,  host  beyond  host,  rank  be- 


400  CHRIST  OUR  SONG. 

yond  rank,  gallery  above  gallery,  and  Jesus  shall  stand 
before  that  great  host  to  conduct  the  harmony,  with  his 
wounded  hands  and  his  wounded  foot !  Like  the  voice 
of  many  waters,  like  the  voice  of  mighty  thunderings, 
they  shall  cry,  "Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain  to 
receive  blessings,  and  riches,  and  honor,  and  glory,  and 
power,  world  without  end.  Amen  and  Amen !"  Oh,  if 
my  ear  shall  hear  no  other  sweet  sounds,  may  I  hear 
that!  If  I  join  no  other  glad  assemblage,  may  I  join 
that. 

I  was  reading  this  afternoon  of  the  battle  of  Agin- 
court,  in  which  Henry  V.  figured  ;  and  it  is  said  after  the 
battle  was  won,  gloriously  won,  the  king  wanted  to  ac- 
knowledge the  divine  interposition,  and  he  ordered  the 
chaplain  to  read  the  Psalm  of  David;  and  when  he  came 
to  the  words,  "Not  unto  us,  0  Lord,  but  unto  thy  name 
be  the  praise,"  the  king  dismounted,  and  all  the  cavalry- 
dismounted,  and  all  the  great  host,  officers  and  men,  threw 
themselves  on  their  faces.  Oli,  at  the  story  of  the  Sav- 
iour's love  and  the  Saviour's  deliverance,  shall  we  not 
prostrate  ourselves  before  him  to-night,  hosts  of  earth  and 
hosts  of  heaven,  falling  upon  our  faces,  and  crying,  ".ZVbi 
unto  us,  not  unto  us,  but  unto  thy  name  he  the  glory T 


THE  WELL  BY  THE  GATE.  401 


THE  WELL  BY  THE  GATE. 

"Oh  that  one  would  give  me  diink  of  the  water  of  the  well  of  Bethle- 
hem, which  is  by  the  gate." — 2  Samuel  xxiii.,  15. 

WAR,  always  distressing,  is  especially  ruinous  in 
harvest-time.  When  the  crops  are  all  ready  for 
the  sickle,  to  have  them  trodden  down  by  cavalry  horses 
and  heavy  supply-trains  gullying  the  fields,  is  enough  to 
make  any  man's  heart  sick.  When  the  last  great  war 
broke  out  in  Europe,  and  France  and  Germany  were 
coming  into  horrid  collision,  I  rode  across  their  golden 
harvests,  and  saw  the  tents  pitched,  and  the  trenches  dug 
in  the  very  midst  of  the  ripe  fields,  the  long  scj^the  of 
battle  sharpening  to  mow  down  harvests  of  men  in  great 
winrows  of  the  dead.  It  was  at  this  season  of  harvest 
that  the  army  of  the  Philistines  came  down  upon  Bethle- 
hem. Hark  to  the  clamor  of  their  voices,  the  neighing 
of  their  chargers,  the  blare  of  their  trumpets,  and  the 
clash  of  their  shields ! 

Let  David  and  his  men  fall  back!  The  Lord's  host 
sometimes  loses  the  day.  But  David  knew  where  to 
hide.  He  had  been  brought  up  in  that  country.  Boys 
are  inquisitive,  and  they  know  all  about  the  region  where 
they  were  born  and  brought  up.  If  you  should  go  back 
to  the  old  homestead,  you  could,  with  your  eyes  shut, 
find  your  way  to  the  meadow,  or  the  orchard,  or  the  hill 
back  of  the  house,  with  which  you  were  familiar  thirty 
or  forty  years  ago.  So  David  knew  the  cave  of  Adullam. 
Perhaps,  in  his  boyhood  days,  he  had  played  "  hide- 


402  THE  WELL  BT  TEE  GATE. 

and-seek"  with  his  comrades  all  about  the  old  cave; 
and  though  others  might  not  have  known  it,  David  did. 
Travelers  say  there  is  only  one  way  of  getting  into  that 
cave,  and  that  is  by  a  very  narrow  path ;  but  David  was 
stout,  and  steady-headed,  and  steady-nerved;  and  so, 
■with  his  three  brave  staff- officers,  he  goes  along  that 
path,  finds  his  way  into  the  cave,  sits  down,  looks  around 
at  the  roof  and  the  dark  passages  of  the  mountain,  feels 
very  weary  with  the  forced  march ;  and  water  he  must 
have,  or  die.  I  do  not  know  but  there  may  have  been 
drops  trickling  down  the  side  of  the  cavern,  or  that  there 
may  have  been  some  water  in  the  goat-skin  slung  to  his 
girdle ;  but  that  w^as  not  what  he  wanted.  He  wanted  a 
deep,  full,  cold  drink,  such  as  a  man  gets  only  out  of  an 
old  well  with  moss-covered  bucket.  David  remember- 
ed that  very  near  that  cave  of  Adullam  there  was  such 
a  well  as  that,  a  well  to  which  he  used  to  go  in  boyhood 
— the  well  of  Bethlehem ;  and  he  almost  imagines  that 
he  can  hear  the  liquid  plash  of  that  well,  and  his  parch- 
ed tongue  moves  through  his  hot  lips  as  he  says,  "Oh, 
that  one  would  give  me  drink  of  the  water  of  the  well 
of  Bethlehem,  which  is  by  the  gate!" 

It  was  no  sooner  said  than  done.  The  three  brave 
staff- officers  bound  to  their  feet  and  start.  Brave  sol- 
diers will  take  even  a  hint  from  their  commander.  But 
between  them  and  the  well  lay  the  host  of  the  Philis- 
tines; and  what  could  three  men  do  with  a  great  army  ? 
Yet  where  there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way,  and,  with  their 
swords  slashing  this  way  and  that,  they  make  their  path 
to  the  well.  While  the  Philistines  are  amazed  at  the 
seeming  fool-hardiness  of  these  three  men,  and  can  not 
make  up  their  minds  exactly  what  it  means,  the  three 


THE  WELL  BY  THE  GATE.  403 

men  have  come  to  the  well.  They  drop  the  bucket. 
They  bring  up  the  water.  They  pour  it  in  the  pail,  and 
then  start  for  the  cave.  "  Stop  them  1"  cry  the  Philis- 
tines. "  Clip  them  with  your  swords  !  Stab  them  with 
your  spears !  Stop  those  three  men  !"  Too  late.  They 
have  got  around  the  hill.  The  hot  rocks  are  splashed 
with  the  overflowing  water  from  the  vessel  as  it  is  car- 
ried up  the  cliffs.  The  three  men  go  along  the  danger- 
ous path,  and  with  cheeks  flushed  with  the  excitement, 
and  all  out  of  breath  in  their  haste,  they  fling  their 
swords,  red  with  the  skirmish,  to  the  side  of  the  cave, 
and  cry  out  to  David,  "  There,  captain  of  the  host,  is 
what  you  wanted,  a  drink  of  the  water  of  the  well  of 
Bethlehem,  which  is  by  the  gate." 

A  text  is  of  no  use  to  me  unless  I  can  find  Christ  in 
it;  and  unless  I  can  bring  a  Gospel  out  of  these  words 
that  will  arouse  and  comfort  and  bless,  I  shall  wish  I  had 
never  seen  them;  for  your  time  would  be  wasted,  and 
against  my  soul  the  dark  record  would  be  made  that  this 
day  I  stood  before  a  great  audience  of  sinning,  suffering, 
dying  men,  and  told  them  of  no  rescue.  By  the  cross  of 
the  Son  of  God,  by  the  throne  of  the  eternal  judgment, 
that  shall  not  be !  May  the  Lord  Jesus  help  me  to  tell 
you  the  truth  to-day  ! 

As  I  was  on  the  way  down  here  this  morning,  I  heard 
some  one  say  that  carrier-pigeons  had  sometimes  letters 
tied  under  the  wing,  and  they  would  fly  hundreds  of 
miles — one  hundred  miles  in  an  hour — carrying  a  mes- 
sage. So  I  have  thought  I  would  like  to  have  it  now. 
Oh,  heavenly  Dove!  bring  under  thy  wing  to-da}^,  to 
my  soul  and  to  the  souls  of  this  people,  some  message 
of  light,  and  love,  and  peace ! 


404  THE  WELL  BY  THE  GATE. 

It  is  not  an  unusual  thing  to  see  people  gather  around 
a  well  in  summer-time.  The  husbandman  puts  down 
his  cradle  at  the  well  curb.  The  builder  puts  down  his 
trowel.  The  traveler  puts  down  his  pack.  Then  one 
draws  the  water  for  all  the  rest,  himself  taking  the  very 
last.  The  cup  is  passed  around,  and  the  fires  of  thirst 
are  put  out ;  the  traveler  starts  on  his  journey,  and  the 
workman  takes  up  his  burden. 

My  friends,  we  come  to-day  around  the  Gospel  well. 
We  put  down  our  pack  of  burdens  and  our  implements  of 
toil.  One  man  must  draw  the  water  for  those  who  have 
gathered  around  the  well.  I  will  try  and  draw  the  water 
to-day;  and  if,  after  I  have  poured  out  from  this  living 
fountain  for  your  soul,  I  just  taste  of  it  myself,  you  will 
not  begrudge  me  a  "drink  from  the  water  of  the  well 
of  Bethlehem,  which  is  by  the  gate." 

This  Gospel  well,  like  the  one  spoken  of  in  the  text, 
is  a  well  of  Bethlehem.  David  had  known  hundreds  of 
wells  of  water,  but  he  wanted  to  drink  from  that  particu- 
lar one,  and  he  thought  nothing  could  slake  his  thirst 
like  that.  And  unless  your  soul  and  mine  can  get  ac- 
cess to  the  Fountain  open  for  sin  and  uncleanness,  we 
must  die.  That  fountain  is  the  well  of  Bethlehem.  It 
was  dug  in  the  night.  It  was  dug  by  the  light  of  a  lan- 
tern— the  star  that  hung  down  over  the  manger.  It 
was  dug  not  at  the  gate  of  Caesar's  palaces,  not  in  the 
park  of  a  Jerusalem  bargain -maker.  It  was  dug  in  a 
barn.  The  camels  lifted  their  weary  heads  to  listen  as 
the  work  went  on.  The  shepherds,  unable  to  sleep,  be- 
cause the  heavens  were  filled  with  bands  of  music,  came 
down  to  see  the  opening  of  the  well.  The  angels  of  God, 
at  the  first  gush  of  the  living  water,  dipped  their  chalices 


THE  WELL  BY  THE  GATE.  405 

of  joy  into  it,  and  drank  to  the  health,  of  earth  and  heav- 
en, as  they  cried,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on 
earth  peace."  Sometimes  in  our  modern  barns  the  water 
is  brought  through  the  pipes  of  the  city  to  the  very 
nostrils  of  the  horses  or  cattle  ;  but  this  well  in  the  Beth- 
lehem barn  was  not  so  much  for  the  beasts  that  perish 
as  for  our  race;  thirst -smitten,  desert  -  traveled  and  si- 
moon-struck. Oh,  my  soul,  weary  with  sin,  stoop  down 
and  drink  to-day  out  of  that  Bethlehem  well. 

"As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water-brooks,  so  my 
soul  panteth  after  thee,  O  God."  You  would  get  a  bet- 
ter understanding  of  this  amidst  the  Adirondacks  in  sum- 
mer-time. Here  comes  a  swift-footed  deer.  The  hounds 
are  close  on  the  track ;  it  has  leaped  chasms  and  scaled 
cliffs ;  it  is  fagged  out ;  its  eyes  are  rolling  in  death ;  its 
tongue  is  lolling  from  its  foaming  mouth.  Faster  the 
deer,  faster  the  dogs,  until  it  plunges  into  Schroon  Lake, 
and  the  hounds  can  follow^  it  no  farther,  and  it  puts  down 
its  head  and  mouth  until  the  nostril  is  clean  submerged 
in  the  cool  wave,  and  I  understand  it:  "As  the  hart 
panteth  for  the  water -brook,  so  panteth  my  soul  after 
thee,  0  God."  Oh,  bring  me  water  from  that  well!  Lit- 
tle child,  who  hast  learned  of  Jesus  in  the  Sabbath-school, 
bring  me  some  of  that  living  water.  Old  man,  who  fifty 
years  ago  didst  first  find  the  well,  bring  me  some  of  that 
water.  Stranger  in  a  strange  land,  who  used  to  hear 
sung,  amidst  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  to  the  tune  of 
"  Bonnie  Doon,"  "The  Star,  the  Star  of  Bethlehem,"  bring 
me  some  of  that  water.  Whosoever  drinketh  of  that 
water  shall  never  thirst.  "  Oh,  that  one  would  give  me 
drink  of  the  water  of  the  well  of  Bethlehem,  which  is 
by  the  gate." 


406  THE  WELL  BY  THE  GATE. 

Again,  this  Gospel  well,  like  the  one  spoken  of  in 
the  text,  is  a  captured  well.  David  remembered  the  time 
when  that  good  water  of  Bethlehem  was  in  the  posses- 
sion of  his  ancestors.  His  father  drank  there,  his  moth- 
er drank  there.  He  remembered  how  the  water  tasted 
when  he  was  a  boy,  and  came  up  there  from  play.  We 
never  forget  the  old  well  we  used  to  drink  out  of  when 
we  were  boys  or  girls.  There  was  something  in  it  that 
blessed  the  lips  and  refreshed  the  brow  better  than  any 
thing  we  have  found  since.  As  we  think  of  that  dear 
old  well,  the  memories  of  the  past  flow  into  each  other 
like  crystalline  drops,  sun -glinted,  and  all  the  more  as 
we  remember  that  the  hands  that  used  to  lay  hold  the 
rope,  and  the  hearts  that  beat  against  the  well -curb 
are  still  now.  We  never  get  over  these  reminiscences. 
George  P.  Morris,  the  great  song-writer  of  this  country, 
once  said  to  me  that  his  song,  "Woodman,  spare  that 
Tree,"  was  sung  in  a  great  concert-hall,  and  the  memories 
of  early  life  were  so  wrought  upon  the  audience  by  that 
song  that,  after  the  singing  was  done,  an  aged  man  arose 
in  the  audience,  overwhelmed  with  emotion,  and  said, 
"Sir,  will  you  please  to  tell  me  whether  the  woodman 
really  spared  the  tree?"  We  never  forget  the  tree  un- 
der which  we  played.  We  never  forget  the  fountain  at 
which  we  drank.  Alas  for  the  man  who  has  no  early 
memories! 

David  thought  of  that  well,  that  boyhood  well,  and  he 
wanted  a  drink  of  it,  but  he  remembered  that  the  Philis- 
tines had  captured  it.  When  those  three  men  tried  to 
come  up  to  the  well  in  behalf  of  David,  they  saw  swords 
gleaming  around  about  it.  And  this  is  true  of  this  Gos- 
pel well.     The  Philistines   have  at  times  captured  it. 


THE  WELL  BY  THE  GATE.  407 

When  we  come  to  take  a  full,  old-fashioned  drink  of 
pardon  and  comfort,  do  not  their  swords  of  indignation 
and  sarcasm  flash?  Why,  the  skeptics  tell  us  that  we 
can  not  come  to  that  fountain !  They  say  the  water  is 
not  fit  to  drink  anyhow.  "If  you  are  really  thirsty 
now,  there  is  the  well  of  philosophy,  there  is  the  well 
of  art,  there  is  the  well  of  science."  They  try  to  sub- 
stitute, instead  of  our  boyhood  faith,  a  modern  mix- 
ture. They  say  a  great  many  beautiful  things  about 
the  soul,  and  they  try  to  feed  our  immortal  hunger  on 
rose-leaves,  and  mix  a  mint-julep  of  worldly  stimulants, 
when  nothing  will  satisfy  us  but  "  a  drink  of  the  water 
of  the  well  of  Bethlehem,  which  is  at  the  gate."  They 
try  to  starve  us  on  husks,  when  the  Father's  banquet  is 
ready,  and  the  best  ring  is  taken  from  the  casket,  and 
the  sweetest  harp  is  struck  for  the  music,  and  the  swift- 
est foot  is  already  lifted  for  the  dance.  They  patronize 
heaven  and  abolish  hell,  and  try  to  measure  eternity 
with  their  hour-glass,  and  the  throne  of  the  great  God 
with  their  yard-stick !  I  abhor  it.  I  tell  you  the  old 
Gospel  well  is  a  captured  well.  I  pray  God  that  there 
may  be  somewhere  in  the  elect  host  three  anointed  men, 
with  courage  enough  to  go  forth  in  the  strength  of  the 
omnipotent  God,  with  the  glittering  swords  ot  truth,  to 
hew  the  way  back  again  to  that  old  well.  I  think  the 
tide  is  turning,  and  that  the  old  Gospel  is  to  take  its 
})lace  again  in  the  family,  and  in  the  university,  and  in 
the  legislative  hall.  Men  have  tried  worldly  philoso- 
phies, and  have  found  out  that  they  do  not  give  any 
comfort,  and  that  they  drop  an  arctic  midnight  upon 
the  death-pillow.  They  fail  when  there  is  a  dead  child 
in  the  house ;  and  when  the  soul  comes  to  leap  into  the 


408  THE  WELL  BY  THE  GATE. 

fathomless  ocean  of  eternity,  they  give  to  the  man  not 
so  much  as  a  broken  spar  to  cling  to.  Depend  upon  it, 
that  well  will  come  into  our  possession  again,  though  it 
has  been  captured.  If  there  be  not  three  anointed  men 
in  the  Lord's  host  with  enough  consecration  to  do  the 
work,  then  the  swords  will  leap  from  Jehovah's  buckler, 
and  the  eternal  three  will  descend — God  the  Father,  God 
the  Son,  God  the  Holy  Ghost — conquering  for  our  dy- 
ihg  race  the  way  back  again  to  "  the  water  of  the  well 
of  Bethlehem,  which  is  by  the  gate."  "If  God  be  for 
us,  who  can  be  against  us?"  "If  God  spared  not  his 
own  Son,  but  freely  gave  him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall 
he  not  with  him  also  freely  give  us  all  things?"  "For 
I  am  persuaded  that  neither  height,  nor  depth,  nor  an- 
gels, nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things  present, 
nor  things  to  come,"  shall  take  from  us,  into  final  captiv- 
ity, the  Gospel  of  my  blessed  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Again,  the  Gospel  well,  like  the  one  spoken  of  in  my 
text,  is  a  loell  at  the  gate.  The  traveler  stops  the  camel 
to-day,  and  gets  down  and  dips  out  of  the  valley  of  the 
East,  some  very  beautiful,  clear,  bright  water,  and  that 
is  out  of  the  very  well  that  David  longed  for.  Do  you 
know  that  that  well  was  at  the  gate,  so  that  nobody 
could  go  into  Bethlehem  without  going  right  past  it? 
And  so  it  is  with  this  Gospel  well — it  is  at  the  gate.  It 
is,  in  the  first  place,  at  the  gate  of  purification.  We  can 
not  wash  away  our  sins  unless  with  that  water.  I  take 
the  responsibility  of  saying  that  there  is  no  man,  woman, 
or  child  in  this  house  to-day  that  has  escaped  sinful  de- 
filement. Do  yow  say  it  is  outrageous  and  ungallant  for 
me  to  make  such  a  charge  ?  Do  you  say,  "  I  have  never 
stolen — I  have  never  blasphemed — I  have  never  com- 


THE  WELL  BY  THE  GATE.  409 

mitted  unchastity  —  I  have  never  been  guilty  of  mur- 
der?" I  reply,  you  have  committed  a  sin  worse  than 
blasphemy,  worse  than  unchastity,  worse  than  theft, 
worse  than  murder.  We  have  all  committed  it.  We 
have  by  our  sin  re-crucified  the  Lord,  and  that  is  deicide. 
And  if  there  be  any  who  dare  to  plead  "  not  guilty  "  to 
the  indictment,  then  the  hosts  of  heaven  will  be  impan- 
eled as  a  jury  to  render  a  unanimous  verdict  against  us; 
guilty  one,  guilty  all.  With  what  a  slashing  stroke  that 
one  passage  cuts  us  away  from  all  our  pretensions : 
"There  is  none  that  doeth  good — no,  not  one."  "Oh," 
says  some  one,  "all  we  want,  all  the  race  wants,  is  de- 
velopment." Kow  I  want  to  tell  you  that  the  race  de- 
velops without  the  Gospel  into  a  Sodom,  a  Five  Points, 
a  Great  Salt  Lake  City.  It  always  develops  down- 
ward, and  never  upward,  except  as  the  grace  of  God  lays 
hold  of  it.  What,  then,  is  to  become  of  our  soul  without 
Christ?  Banishment.  Disaster.  But  I  bless  my  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  that  there  is  a  well  at  the  gate  of  purifica- 
tion. For  great  sin,  great  pardon.  For  eighty  years 
of  transgression,  an  eternity  of  forgiveness.  For  crime 
deep  as  hell,  an  atonement  high  as  heaven ;  that  where 
sin  abounded,  so  grace  may  much  more  abound ;  that  as 
sin  reigned  unto  death,  even  so  may  grace  reign  through 
righteousness  unto  eternal  life  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 
Angel  of  the  Covenant,  dip  thy  wing  in  this  living  fount- 
ain to-day,  and  wave  it  over  this  solemn  assemblage, 
that  our  souls  may  be  washed  in  "the  water  of  the  well 
of  Bethlehem,  which  is  by  the  gate." 

Further,  I  remark  that  this  well  of  the  Gospel  is  at  the 
gate  of  comfort  Do  you  know  where  David  was  when 
he  uttered  the  words  of  the  text?     He  was  in  the  cavo 


410  THE  WELL  BY  THE  GATE. 

of  Adullam.  That  is  where  some  of  you  are  now.  Has 
the  world  always  gone  smoothly  with  you  ?  Has  it  nev- 
er pursued  you  with  slander?  Is  your  health  always 
good?  Have  your  fortunes  never  perished?  Are  your 
children  all  alive  and  well?  Is  there  one  dead  lamb  in 
the  fold  ?  Are  you  ignorant  of  the  way  to  the  ceme- 
tery ?  Have  you  ever  heard  the  bell  toll  when  it  seem- 
ed as  if  every  stroke  of  the  iron  clapper  beat  your 
heart?  Are  the  skies  as  bright  when  you  look  into  them 
as  they  used  to  be  when  other  eyes,  now  closed,  used  to 
look  into  them?  Is  there  some  trunk  or  drawer  in 
your  house  that  you  go  to  only  on  anniversary  days, 
when  there  comes  beating  against  your  soul  the  surf  of 
a  great  ocean  of  agony?  It  is  the  cave  of  Adullam! 
The  cave  of  Adullam !  Is  there  some  David  here  whose 
fatherly  heart  wayward  Absalom  has  broken  ?  Is  there 
some  Abraham  here  who  is  lonely  because  Sarah  is  dead 
in  the  family-plot  of  Machpelah?  After  thirty  or  forty 
years  of  companionship,  how  hard  it  was  for  them  to  part ! 
Why  not  have  two  seats  in  the  Lord's  chariot,  so  that 
both  the  old  folks  might  have  gone  up  at  once  ?  My 
aged  mother,  in  her  last  moment,  said  to  my  father, 
"Father,  wouldn't  it  be  nice  if  we  could  both  go  to- 
gether?" No,  no,  no.  We  must  part.  And  there  are 
wounded  hearts  here  to-day;  some  have  had  trouble 
since  I  have  been  gone.  I  thought  I  would  say  one 
word  of  comfort  to  you  to-day.  The  world  can  not  com- 
fort you.  What  can  it  bring  you  ?  Nothing.  Nothing. 
The  salve  they  try  to  put  on  your  wounds  will  not  stick. 
They  can  not,  with  their  bungling  surgery,  mend  the 
broken  bones. 

Zoppar  the  Naamathite,  and  Bildad  the  Shuhite,  and 


THE  WELL  BY  TEE  GATE.  411 

Eliphaz  the  Temanite,  come  in,  and  talk,  and  talk,  and 
tiilk,  but  miserable  comforters  are  they  all.  They  can 
not  pour  light  into  the  cave  of  Adullam,  They  can  not 
bring  a  single  draught  of  water  from  "the  well  of  Beth- 
lehem, which  is  by  the  gate."  But  glory  be  to  Jesus 
Christ,  there  is  comfort  at  the  gate!  There  is  life  in  the 
well  at  the  gate.  If  you  give  me  time,  I  will  draw  up 
a  promise  for  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  this  house. 
Ay,  I  will  do  it  in  two  minutes.  I  will  lay  hold  the 
rope  of  the  old  well.  What  is  your  trouble?  "Oh," 
you  say,  "  I  am  so  sick,  so  weary  of  life — ailments  after 
ailments."  I  will  draw  you  up  a  promise:  "The  in- 
habitant shall  never  say  '  I  am  sick.' "  What  is  your 
trouble?  "  Oh,  it  is  loss  of  friends — bereavement,"  you 
say.  I  will  draw  you  up  a  promise,  fresh  and  cool,  out 
of  the  w^ell:  "I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life;  he 
that  believeth  in  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he 
live."  What  is  your  trouble?  You  say  it  is  the  infirm- 
ities of  old  age.  I  will  draw  you  up  a  promise:  "Down 
to  old  age  I  am  w^ith  thee,  to  hoar  hairs  will  I  carry 
thee."  What  is  your  trouble  ?  "  Oh,"  you  say,  "  I  have 
a  widowed  soul,  and  my  children  cry  for  bread."  I 
bring  up  this  promise:  "Leave  thy  fatherless  children 
• — I  will  preserve  them  alive,  and  let  thy  widows  trust 
in  me."  I  break  through  the  armed  ranks  of  your  sor- 
rows to-day,  and  bring  to  3'our  parched  lips  "  a  drink  of 
the  water  of  the  well  of  Bethlehem,  which  is  by  the  gate." 
Again,  the  Gospel  well  is  at  the  gate  of  heaven.  I  have 
not  heard  yet  one  single  intelligent  account  of  the  future 
world  from  any  body  who  does  not  believe  in  the  Bible. 
They  throw  such  a  fog  about  the  subject  that  I  do  not 
want  to  go  to  the  skeptic's  heaven,  to  the  transcendent- 


412  THE  WELL  BY  THE  OATE. 

alist's  heaven,  to  the  worldly  philosopher's  heaven.  I 
would  not  exchange  the  poorest  room  in  your  house  for 
the  finest  heaven  that  Huxley,  or  Stuart  Mill,  or  Darwin 
ever  dreamed  of.  Their  heaven  has  no  Christ  in  it; 
and  a  heaven  without  Christ,  though  you  could  sweep 
the  whole  universe  into  it,  would  be  a  hell !  Oh,  they 
tell  us  there  are  no  songs  there :  there  are  no  coronations 
in  heaven — that  is  all  imagination.  They  tell  us  we  will 
do  there  about  what  we  do  here,  only  on  a  larger  scale 
— geometrize  with  clearer  intellect,  and  with  alpenstock 
go  clambering  up  over  the  icebergs  in  an  eternal  vaca- 
tion. Eather  than  that,  I  turn  to  my  Bible,  and  I  find 
John's  picture  of  that  good  land  —  that  heaven  which 
was  your  lullaby  in  infancy — that  heaven  which  our 
children  in  the  Sabbath -school  will  sing  about  this  after- 
noon— that  heaven  which  has  a  "well  at  the  gate." 

After  you  have  been  on  a  long  journey,  and  you  come 
in,  all  bedusted  and  tired,  to  your  home,  the  first  thing 
you  want  is  refreshing  ablution  ;  and  I  am  glad  to  know 
that  after  we  get  through  the  pilgrimage  of  this  world — 
the  hard,  dusty  pilgrimage — we  will  find  a  well  at  the 
gate.  In  that  one  wash,  away  will  go  our  sins  and  sor- 
rows. I  do  not  care  whether  cherub,  or  seraph,  or  my 
own  departed  friends  in  that  blessed  land  places  to  my 
lips  the  cup,  the  touch  of  that  cup  will  be  life,  will  be 
heaven  1  I  was  reading  of  how  the  ancients  sought  for 
the  foantain  of  perpetual  youth.  They  thought  if  they 
could  only  find  and  drink  out  of  that  well,  the  old  would 
become  young  again,  the  sick  would  be  cured,  and  every 
body  would  have  eternal  juvenescence.  Of  course,  they 
could  not  find  it.  Eureka!  I  have  found  it !  "  the  water 
of  the  well  of  Bethlehem,  which  is  by  the  gate." 


THE  WELL  BY  THE  GATE.  413 

I  think  we  had  better  make  a  bargain  with  those  who 
leave  us,  going  out  of  this  world  from  time  to  time,  as  to 
where  we  will  meet  them.  Travelers  parting  appoint  a 
place  of  meeting.  Thej  say,  "  We  will  meet  at  Kome, 
or  we  will  meet  at  Stockholm,  or  Vienna,  or  Jerusalem, 
or  Bethlehem."  Now,  when  we  come  to  stand  by  the 
death-pillow  of  those  who  are  leaving  us  for  the  far  land, 
do  not  let  us  weep  as  though  we  would  never  see  them 
again,  but  let  us,  there  standing,  appoint  a  place  where 
we  will  meet.  Where  shall  it  be?  Shall  it  be  on  the 
banks  of  the  river?  ISTo.  The  banks  are  too  long. 
Shall  it  be  in  the  temple  ?  No ;  no.  There  is  such  a 
host  there — ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand.  Where 
shall  we  meet  our  loved  ones?  Let  us  make  an  appoint- 
ment to  meet  at  the  well  by  the  gate.  Oh  heaven ! 
Sweet  heaven !  Dear  heaven  !  Heaven,  where  our  good 
friends  are !   Heaven,  where  Jesus  is !   Heaven !   Heaven ! 

But  while  I  stand  here,  there  comes  a  revulsion  of  feel- 
ing when  I  look  into  your  eyes  and  know  there  are  souls 
here  dying  of  thirst,  notwithstanding  the  well  at  the  gate. 
Between  them  and  the  well  of  heaven  there  is  a  great 
army  of  sin  ;  and  though  Christ  is  ready  to  clear  a  way 
to  that  well  for  them,  they  will  not  have  his  love  or  in- 
tercession. I  suppose  there  may  be  some  soul  in  this 
house  to-day  that  will  never  see  heaven.  I  can  not  tell 
by  any  pallor  of  cheek  or  gloom  of  brow  where  such  a 
one  may  sit  or  stand ;  but  God  knows  that  that  one  soul 
is  lost.  The  grain  is  all  gathered  into  barns,  and  it  is 
September  now ;  and  for  that  soul  in  this  house — if  there 
be  such  a  one — the  dirge  would  be  appropriate  in  two 
senses:  "The  harvest  is  past,  the  summer  is  ended." 

But  I  am  glad  to  know  that  you  may  come  yet.  The 
well  is  here — the  well  of  heaven.     Come :  I  do  not  care 


414  THE  WELL  BY  THE  GATE. 

how  feeble  you  are !  Let  me  take  hold  of  your  arm,  and 
steady  you  up  to  the  well-curb.  "  Ho,  every  one  that 
thirsteth,  come."  I  would  rather  win  one  soul  to  Christ 
this  morning  than  wear  the  crown  of  the  world's  domin- 
ion. Do  not  let  any  man  go  away  and  say  I  did  not  in- 
vite him.  Oh,  if  you  could  only  just  look  at  my  Lord 
once;  if  you  could  just  see  him  full  in  the  face;  ay,  if 
you  could  only  do  as  that  woman  did  whom  I  read  about 
at  the  beginning  of  the  services — just  come  up  behind 
him  and  touch  his  feet — methinks  you  would  live.  In 
Northern  New  Jersey,  three  winters  ago,  three  little  chil- 
dren wandered  off  from  home  in  a  snow-storm.  Night 
came  on.  Father  and  mother  said,  "  Where  are  the  chil- 
dren ?"  They  could  not  be  found.  They  started  out  in 
haste,  and  the  news  ran  to  the  neighbors,  and  before 
morning  it  was  said  that  there  were  hundreds  of  men 
hunting  the  mountains  for  those  three  children,  but 
found  them  not.  After  a  while  a  man  imagined  there 
was  a  place  that  had  not  been  looked  at,  and  he  went 
and  saw  the  three  children.  He  examined  their  bodies. 
He  found  that  the  older  boy  had  taken  off  his  coat  and 
wrapped  it  around  the  younger  one,  the  baby,  and  then 
taken  off  his  vest  and  put  it  around  the  other  one;  and 
there  i\iQj  all  died,  he  probably  the  first,  for  he  had  no 
coat  or  vest.  Oh,  it  was  a  touching  scene  when  that  was 
brought  to  light!  I  was  on  the  ground  about  a  week 
ago,  and  it  brought  the  w^hole  scene  to  my  mind ;  and  I 
thought  to  myself  of  a  more  melting  scene  than  that:  it 
is  that  Jesus,  our  elder  brother,  took  off  the  robe  of  his 
royalt}^,  and  laid  aside  the  last  garment  of  earthly  com- 
fort, that  he  might  wrap  our  poor  souls  from  the  blast. 
Oh,  the  height,  and  the  depth,  and  the  length,  and  the 
breadth  of  the  love  of  Christ ! 


CESSATION  OF  EXPERIMENT.  415 


CESSATION  OF  EXPERIMENT. 

"Thou  shalt  see  greater  things  than  these." — John  i.,  50. 

OX  this,  the  fifth  anniversary  of  my  settlement  as 
your  pastor,  I  desire  to  tell  the  story  of  this  church 
-—a  stor}^  that  has  never  yet  been  told.  I  tell  it  in  an- 
swer to  American  and  European  letters,  so  numerous 
that,  with  the  aid  of  a  secretary,  I  have  not  been  able  to 
answer  them.  I  tell  it  in  recognition  of  the  goodness  of 
God.  I  tell  it  out  of  justice  to  the  men  and  women  who 
sit  before  me;  out  of  justice  to  some  who  have  already 
entered  upon  the  white -robed  congregations  of  heaven. 
It  is  a  story  of  escapes,  deliverances,  losses,  self-sacrific- 
ing achievement,  wild  tragedy,  divine  help,  and  of  world- 
wide sympathy,  that  I  do  not  think  belongs  to  any  other 
church  of  the  century.  There  are  passages  that  remind 
me  of  the  going  of  the  Israelites  through  the  Red  Sea. 
And  yet  it  shall  not  be  an  epic,  nor  a  lyric,  nor  a  dithy- 
rambic,  but  only  a  plain  pastoral. 

Seated  in  my  Philadelphia  home,  the  "  call  "  came  from 
this  church.  The  eldership  deceived  me  in  nowise.  They 
told  me  it  was  almost  an  extinct  church.  Nineteen  mem- 
bers were  all  that  could  be  rallied  to  a  congregational 
meeting  to  make  out  the  "call."  It  was  accepted,  for 
the  reason  that  the  church  was  flat  down ;  and  I  said  to 
myself,  "That  will  be  just  the  place  in  which  to  try,  on 
a  large  scale,  a  free  church,  without  any  established  hin- 
derances  in  the  way."     And  so,  putting  my  trust  in  God, 

18 


416  CESSATION  OF  EXPERIMENT. 

and  confronting  the  derision  of  some  of  mj  best  personal 
friends  at  what  they  called  a  "  wild  undertaking,"  I  came 
to  this,  the  fairest  city  under  the  sun.  Blessed  be  her 
churches !  Prospered  be  her  commerce !  Christianized 
be  all  her  schools ! 

The  first  summer  we  enlarged  the  old  chapel,  and  mul- 
tiplied the  seating  capacity  in  every  possible  way.  Ac- 
cording to  the  most  approved  style,  our  pew-rents  went 
up ;  and  as  the  pew-rents  went  up,  my  heart  went  down. 
The  next  spring  the  unanimous  cry  was  for  a  new  church, 
and  the  trustees  assembled  to  decide  what  it  should  be. 
With  a  suppressed  excitement,  such  as  I  never  before  or 
since  felt,  I  went  into  a  neighbor's  parlor  to  lay  before 
the  trustees  the  plan  of  a  free  church.  I  tried  to  show 
them  in  that  conversation  that  it  is  ungospel  and  unchris- 
tian to  make  a  man's  financial  qualification  the  test  of 
pew-holding,  and  to  show  them  that  we  had  no  right  to 
knock  dov/n,  under  an  auctioneer's  hammer,  to  the  high- 
est bidder,  a  man's  chances  for  heaven.  There  was  a 
long  pause.  After  a  while  one  of  the  brethren  remarked, 
"I  have  no  doubt  that  a  church  on  that  plan  would  be 
the  highest  style  of  Gospel  church ;  but  where  would  we 
get  the  money  to  carry  on  such  a  project  ?"  I  replied, 
"Put  your  trust  in  Grod,  and  depend  upon  the  voluntary 
subscriptions  and  contributions  of  the  people.  And  since 
my  own  salary  may  be  in  the  way,  I  now  here,  and  for 
all  time  to  come,  discharge  you  of  all  financial  responsi- 
bility to  me  personally.  Give  me  a  free  church,  and  if 
you  can  not  support  me,  then,  by  pen  and  lecturing  plat- 
form, I  will  take  care  of  myself."  "  Well,"  said  one  of 
the  brethren,  "if  the  dominie  believes  in  the  plan  as 
much  as  that,  I  think  we  can  afford  to  believe  in  it,  and 


CESSATION  OF  EXPERIMENT.  417 

I  move  we  have  a  free  church  " — a  resolution  that  passed 
with  a  unanimous  "Aye." 

Then  there  came  around  about  me  a  band  of  conse- 
crated men  and  women  sworn  to  do  this  work ;  and  if  I 
ever  forget  their  fidelity  to  Christ,  and  their  adherence 
to  the  good  cause,  may  my  tongue  be  forever  still !  The 
first  question  was  to  find  a  site  for  the  building.  Com- 
mittees were  appointed,  and  went  up  and  down  the  city 
looking  for  a  place,  they  having  decided  that  we  must 
have  a  place  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  front  by  one  hun- 
dred feet  deep ;  and  after  weeks  of  searching,  they  found, 
within  three  doors  of  the  old  chapel,  just  the  place — one 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  front  by  one  hundred  feet  deep. 
Although  the  lot  is  larger  now  than  it  was  then,  that 
was  the  size  of  it  then.  The  place  was  foreordained  from 
all  eternity  to  be  the  place  where  we  should  build.  I  was 
often  asked,  and  I  asked  myself,  "  Why  wasn't  that  lot 
taken  ?"     God  was  keeping  it  for  us. 

The  next  question  to  be  decided  was,  Who  shall  be  the 
architect?  I  went  to  one  of  the  prominent  architects  of 
New  York,  and  said,  "  Give  us  a  church  in  amphitheat- 
rical  shape."  He  figured  on  it  a  few  weeks,  and  said, 
"An  amphitheatrical  building  is  not  churchlyy  I  went 
to  another  distinguished  architect,  and  said,  ''Give  us  an 
amphitheatrical  building,  where  the  people  can  see  each 
other's  faces  instead  of  the  back  of  the  head,  and  where 
we  can  all  be  gathered  as  in  a  great  home  circle,  and 
where  nothing  shall  be  angular."  He  figured  on  it  a 
while,  and  at  the  end  of  four  weeks  said  to  me  that  an 
amphitheatrical  building  would  not  be  churchhj.  One 
day  a  young  man  came  into  my  room,  and  said,  "Have 
you  decided  upon  an  architect  for  the  building?"     I  re- 


4:18  CESSATION  OF  EXPERIMENT, 

plied,  "No."  Said  he,  "Would  I  have  any  chance?" 
I  replied,  "  Any  man,  young  or  old,  who  can  give  us  an 
amphitheatrical  church,  where  the  people  can  all  be  seat- 
ed in  sympathy  with  each  other,  will  be  our  architect." 
Then  I  drew  out  on  the  back  of  a  letter,  in  twenty 
strokes,  the  general  idea,  and  said,  "If  you  can  bring 
that  out  with  architectural  skill,  you  will  be  our  man." 
So  this  plan  was  developed.  That  it  was  a  good  one, 
I  take  from  the  fact  that  there  have  been  scores  of 
churches  since  built  on  the  same  plan. 

Then  the  trowel  began  to  click,  and  the  hammer  to 
thump,  and  the  building  rose.  As  we  were  to  build  it 
for  a  temporary  structure,  to  last  but  two  years,  in  three 
months  the  whole  affair  was  done ;  but,  mark  you,  with- 
out having  raised  one  dollar  of  contribution  toward  it. 
We  depended  upon  the  sale  of  the  old  church  for  the 
building  of  the  new ;  but  the  purchasers  of  that  building 
failed  to  meet  their  payments,  and  so  the  building  came 
back  upon  our  hands.  Then,  after  the  new  building  was 
done,  we  had  to  go  through  the  work  of  attempting  to 
pay  for  a  church  entirely  completed,  and  some  of  you 
may  know  what  tough  work  that  is.  Then  we  went  on 
organizing — making  hundreds  of  experiments  in  hun- 
dreds of  things,  because  we  had  no  precedent,  no  ante- 
cedent. Yet  the  work  all  the  time  progressed.  At  our 
very  first  communion  in  the  old  Tabernacle,  more  than 
ninety  souls  professed  faith  in  Christ;  at  the  second 
communion  in  the  old  Tabernacle,  more  than  fifty  souls; 
at  the  third  communion  in  the  old  Tabernacle,  more  than 
forty  souls;  and  that  is  the  only  way  I  know  how  to  cal- 
culate the  advancement  of  a  church.  Though  you  build 
a  church  as  grand  as  St.  Paul's,  of  London,  and  have  a 


CESSATION  OF  EXFEBIMENT.  410 

line  of  carriages,  with  resetted  coachmen,  reaching  from 
here  to  Prospect  Park,  I  would  abhor  it  if  there  were  no 
conversions.  That  church  is  an  accursed  thing  which 
knows  nothing  about  soul-saving.  Pull  it  down,  and  use 
its  timbers  and  its  stones  for  bowling-alleys  and  theatres. 
They  are  not  so  objectionable,  because  they  pretend  to 
be  what  they  are ;  but  a  church  which  does  nothing  but 
rock  souls  into  an  eternal  sleep  under  a  gilded  canopy  is 
a  gigantic  hypocrisy,  and  defies  the  bolts  of  high  heaven. 

Well,  the  work  went  on.  On  the  following  summer 
we  found  that  our  Tabernacle  was  too  strait  for  us,  and 
so  we  enlarged  it  at  an  expense  like  building  another 
new  church.  Meanwhile  our  church  had  sailed  down 
into  calm  financial  waters ;  and  one  December  night  the 
trustees  of  the  church  assembled  to  look  over  the  affairs 
of  the  church,  and  they  examined  the  income  and  the 
outgo,  and  saw  that  the  next  year  they  would  have  a 
positive  surplus.  They  clapped  their  hands,  and  sat  up 
very  late  that  night  talking  the  matter  over,  and  they 
said,  "  This  project  of  a  free  church,  which  some  have 
caricatured  and  many  have  doubted,  has  proved  to  be  a 
success."  It  was  about  eleven  o'clock  at  night  when  the 
sexton  shut  the  door  of  the  old  iron-clad.  Alas!  that 
was  the  last  night  of  the  Tabernacle.  That  ark  would 
never  float  any  more  souls  into  glory.  Its  work  was 
done.  And  if,  when  a  Christian  man  dies,  the  air  is  full 
of  spirits  coming  and  going,  when  a  Christian  church  is 
about  coming  to  its  closing  moments,  I  think  that  angelic 
spectators  move  forward  and  backward  in  the  scene.  I 
think  that  that  night  the  air  was  full  of  them. 

^Yhen  next  morning,  at  ten  o'clock,  the  cry  of  fire  was 
lifted,  it  was  not  a  hoarse  uproar,  but  it  was  a  voice  with 


420  CESSATION  OF  EXPERIMENT. 

tears  in  it.  I  said  to  a  man  the  other  day,  "When  did 
you  become  a  Christian?"  He  replied,  "When  the  old 
Tabernacle  burned.  I  don't  cry  often,  I  want  you  to  un- 
derstand, but  I  cried  that  morning,  and  I  cried  all  day. 
Wasn't  it  awful?"  0  Lord  Jesus!  great  Head  of  the 
Church!  what  a  day  that  was  when  thy  children  stood 
before  their  burning  altar.  Some  sighed.  Some  wrung 
their  hands.  Some  fainted.  Invalids  with  unnatural 
strength  got  up  from  their  couches  and  looked  out  at  it. 
It  was  the  death-throe  of  a  church,  its  departing  spirit 
spreading  abroad  wings  of  flame — its  groan,  the  falling 
timbers.  Let  the  firemen  take  off  their  glazed  hats,  and 
twenty  thousand  excited  spectators  bow  down  before  the 
catafalque  of  fire.     Dead  !     Dead !     Ashes  to  ashes ! 

The  loss  was  the  more  complete,  because  it  was  an  iron 
structure  on  which  we  had  not  been  able  to  get  adequate 
insurance.  So  we  were  as  thoroughly  rubbed  out  as  a 
sponge  rubs  out  a  sum  from  a  boy's  slate  at  school. 
Then  there  came  S3^mpathetic  letters.  I  never  got  so 
many  letters  in  one  day  in  my  life  as  I  got  on  the  fol- 
lowing day.  And  then  there  came  practical  help.  One 
thousand  dollars  from  Dresden,  Germany,  where  they 
make  pictures.  Help  from  Sheffield,  England,  where 
they  m^ake  knives ;  from  Glasgow,  Scotland,  where  they 
make  steamers;  from  Edinburgh,  where  they  make 
scholars;  from  Paris,  where  they  make  —  revolutions; 
from  London,  where  they  make  every  thing.  It  was  not 
so  much  the  amount  they  gave  as  the  way  they  gave  it. 
They  said  they  had  seen  the  fire  in  Yorkshire,  and  in  old 
Essex,  and  among  the  Trossacks.  They  told  us  we  were 
prayed  for  among  the  Manchester  and  Birmingham  oper- 
atives.   You  know  how  it  was  in  our  own  city.    Twenty- 


C£S;SATIOS  OF  EXPEEIMENT.  421 

six  churches  in  as  many  hours  were  offered  for  our  oc- 
cupation. They  offered  us  their  main  audience -rooms; 
they  offered  us  their  lecture-rooms ;  and  what  they  did 
not  offer  us  would  not  be  worth  mentioning.  The  dem- 
onstration of  Christian  brotherhood  was  so  magnificent, 
that,  as  soon  as  I  could  get  the  cinders  and  the  tears  wiped 
out  of  my  eyes,  I  said,  "  Well,  brethren,  I  am  glad  the 
thing  has  burned  up.  We  only  built  it  for  two  years 
anyhow,  and  it  was  not  large  enough.  Now  let  us  rise 
up  and  have  a  larger  and  a  better  structure." 

To  make  the  one  year  of  our  exile  the  more  bearable, 
the  Lord  God  came  down  with  his  spirit  in  the  Academy 
of  Music.  Some  people  said,  "You  had  better  not  go 
there ;  it  is  a  theatre — a  secular  place."  But  we  went 
there,  and  had  it  dedicated.  We  dedicated  the  Director's 
Room  in  that  building  by  a  prayer-meeting  twice  every 
Sabbath.  We  dedicated  the  "Greenroom"  by  cries  of 
"What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?"  We  dedicated  the 
platform  by  the  story  of  a  Saviour's  love,  and  never  any 
thing  else  but  that,  morning  and  night.  We  dedicated 
the  boxes  by  men  and  women  who  rose  asking  for 
prayers.  We  dedicated  the  main  audience-room  b}^  five 
hundred  and  thirteen  souls  professing  to  have  found  the 
peace  of  the  Gospel — -three  hundred  and  seven  of  them 
connecting  themselves  with  our  church,  the  others  go- 
ing elsewhere,  because  we  had  as  yet  no  home.  And 
though  that  Academy  of  Music  may  be  the  scene  of  sec- 
ular entertainments  for  many  a  year,  there  shall  be  no 
power  in  the  voice  o^  prima  donna  or  in  the  blast  of  bra- 
zen instruments  to  drown  out  "  St  Martin's  "  and  "  Cor- 
onation," still  rolling  among  those  arches. 

Meanwhile  we  selected  a  new  architect — one  who  did 


42-2  CESSATION  OF  EXPERIMEXT. 

not  think  that  an  amphitheatrical  building  would  be  un- 
churchly  ;  one  who,  after  long  experience  in  putting  up 
some  of  the  largest  structures  in  England  and  the  United 
States,  brought  all  his  achievements  to  a  culmination  in 
plans  for  this  temple.  The  women — the  Lord  has  writ- 
ten the  record  on  high:  I  can  not  read  it  until  I  come 
up  there — the  women,  by  Fair,  and  by  personal  solicita- 
tion, raised  money.  The  Board  of  Trustees  brooded,  af- 
ter many  a  midnight,  over  the  plans.  The  work  went 
on,  by  what  toil,  by  what  hope  deferred,  by  what  anxiety, 
I  can  not  tell,  until  on  the  22d  of  February  the  veil 
was  drawn  from  our  eyes,  and  there  rose  before  our  vis- 
ion this  building,  grander  than  our  brightest  anticipa- 
tions, strong  as  the  everlasting  hills,  and  beautiful  as  a 
midsummer's  dream;  offering  seating  capacity  to  sever- 
al thousand  more  than  any  Protestant  church  in  Amer- 
ica. 

There  remained  but  two  things  to  be  tested :  Can  we 
pay  for  it?  Will  it  be  occupied?  The  first  question 
you  answered,  when,  on  the  opening  day,  you  put  in  the 
Lord's  lap  thirty-six  thousand  dollars,  making  a  record 
for  yourselves  which,  while  it  has  won  the  admiration  of 
Christendom,  will  be  a  page  you  will  be  glad  of  in  the 
great  day  when  Christ  shall  say,  "  Well  done,  good  and 
faithful  servant.  Thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few 
things  ;  be  thou  ruler  over  ten  cities."  The  other  ques- 
tion was.  Will  all  the  pews  be  assigned  ?  For,  mind  you, 
though  we  are  a  free  church,  we  are  neither  a  mob  nor 
a  rabble.  Though  the  pews  are  all  free  from  taxation, 
yet  they  are  formally  assigned,  that  every  father  and 
mother  may  have  their  family  between  them ;  that  this 
Sabbath  they  may  sit  where  they  sat  last  Sabbath,  and 


CESSATION  OF  EXPERIMENT.  423 

next  Sabbath  where  they  sat  this  Sabbatb  ;  that  a  home 
feeling  may  be  cultured;  that  the  church  may  be  organ- 
ized, disciplined  for  practical  Chiistian  work,  as  it  could 
not  be  if  the  pews  were  not  assigned.  We  built  the 
church  so  large  that  the  trustees  said,  and  I  said,  that  if  in 
one  or  two  years  we  can  assign  all  these  pews  to  fomilies, 
we  shall  be  satisfied.  The  church  has  been  open  only 
about  six  weeks;  yet  two  weeks  ago  we  completed  the 
assignment  of  all  the  pews  —  a  work  that  would  have 
been  done  the  night  of  the  opening  if  there  had  been 
time;  and  so  we  find  that,  instead  of  the  building  being 
too  large,  it  is  already  too  small.  Now,  if  this  church 
shall  ever  doubt  God's  goodness,  or  his  willingness  to 
take  us  straight  through  any  righteous  undertaking, 
then  we  deserve  to  have  this  building  go  down  into  the 
ashes  of  a  ruin  from  which  it  shall  never  be  resurrected, 
or  swallowed  of  an  earthquake  that  leaves  not  one  brick 
or  shingle  behind.  "Oh,  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord  for 
his  goodness,  for  his  merc}^  endureth  forever."  "Not 
unto  us,  not  unto  us,  O  Lord!  but  unto  thy  name  be  the 
glory."  If  God  ever  defended  a  church,  if  God  ever  led 
a  church,  if  God  ever  blessed  a  church,  if  God  ever  saved 
a  church — this  is  the  church. 

And  now  I  demand  of  all  those  who  are  here  to-day, 
and  of  all  those  to  whom  these  words  shall  come,  that 
they  take  this  free  church  out  of  the  list  of  experiments, 
and  put  it  down  in  the  list  of  accomplished  facts.-  There 
are  two  or  three  things  we  have  proved. 

In  the  first  place,  we  have  proved  that  free  churches 
are  a  financial  possibility.  The  reason  that  in  like  under- 
takings, in  most  places,  they  have  failed,  has  been  be- 
cause they  have  been  on  a  small  scale,  or  because  they 

18* 


424  CESSATION  OF  EXPERIMENT. 

have  been  in  a  mean  structure,  or  because  tbey  have  been 
with  poor  singing,  or  in  a  repelling  neighborhood.  Give 
a  free  church  a  fair  chance,  and  the  right  kind  of  a  neigh- 
borhood, and  you  shall  gather  within  its  walls  all  classes 
— the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  cultured  and  the  ignorant. 
Just  the  kind  of  a  church  our  Lord  Jesus  would  favor: 
the  rich  and  the  poor  meeting  together,  the  Lord  the 
maker  of  them  all.  Do  you  know  this — that  nine-tenths 
of  the  pew-renting  churches  in  this  country,  at  the  end 
of  the  year,  depend  upon  a  few  rich  men  to  come  and 
put  their  hands  in  their  pockets  up  to  the  elbow,  to  meet 
the  deficit?  Now  I  contend  that  that  is  not  the  way  to 
do.  Throw  the  whole  responsibility  on  the  people,  and 
they  will  meet  it.  They  love  to  be  trusted.  Was  there 
ever  a  grander  illustration  of  the  willingness  of  the  peo- 
ple of  this  country  to  support  a  free  church  than  on  the 
twenty -second  of  February?  Mind  you,  it  was  in  the 
midst  of  great  financial  depression.  Mind  you,  it  was 
like  the  building  of  three  churches  in  three  years — the 
first  Tabernacle  built  in  1871 ;  the  enlargement  of  that 
structure  (which  was  almost  like  erecting  another  build- 
ing, for  expense)  in  1872 ;  then  this  structure  in  the 
early  part  of  1874.  Do  you  believe  that  a  church  con- 
ducted on  any  other  principle  could  have  roused  up 
enough  sympathy  to  be  able  to  build  three  churches  in 
a  little  over  three  years  ?     I  trow  not. 

Oh,  we  were  tempted,  again  and  again,  to  go  back  to 
the  old  plan !  I  was  offered,  as  some  of  you  know, 
twenty  thousand  dollars  per  year  salary,  if  I  would  allow 
or  consent  to  the  selling  of  the  pews  in  the  old  Tab- 
ernacle ;  but  we  had  consecrated  ourselves  to  the  work 
of  building  a  free  church,  and  we  do  not  want  any  rest 


CESSATION  OF  EXPERIMENT.  425 

from  it  until  we  rest  in  Greenwood,  the  pleasant  bed 
where  I  have  a  great  many  good  friends  sleeping  this 
morning. 

We  proved  another  thing,  and  that  is,  that  a  free 
church  can  he  made  attractive  to  the  refined  and  the  cultured. 
The  stereotyped  objection,  all  over  the  world,  to  a  free 
church  has  been,  "  You  break  down  the  barriers  of  so- 
ciety, and  then  the  cultured  and  the  refined  will  not 
come  into  such  a  place."  We  have  put  the  falsehood 
upon  that  objection  to  a  free  church.  There  is  not  any- 
where—  there  is  not  in  any  church  in  this  land  or  in 
England — more  educated  men  and  women,  more  profes- 
sional men,  more  lawyers,  doctors,  artists,  teachers,  more 
men  who  can  make  an  intelligent  public  address  upon 
every  question  of  finance,  politics,  morals,  and  religion ; 
so  that  when  a  man  introduces  his  family  in  this  Chris- 
tian association,  he  introduces  them  into  the  highest 
style  of  refinement.  I  have  wandered  up  and  down  the 
world — and  I  suppose  I  have  seen  as  much  of  it  as  any 
man  of  my  age — and  I  now  say  that  it  is  my  highest 
ambition  to  have  my  own  children  worthy  of  the  Chris- 
tian, elevated  society  in  which  I  have  here  introduced 
them. 

Again,  we  have  proved  that  the  people  ivill  come  to  re- 
ceive a  literal  and  unvarnished.  Gospel.  The  impression 
is  abroad  that  you  must  fix  up  the  Gospel  to  suit  the 
age,  instead  of  fixing  up  the  age  to  suit  the  Gospel ;  and 
the  young  men  coming  out  of  our  theological  seminaries 
have  the  impression  that  they  must  palliate  the  preju- 
dices of  society,  and  must  cover  over  the  natural  rotten- 
ness of  the  human  heart,  and  that  they  must  tell  men 
what  very  clever  people  they  are,  and  that  they  only. 


1,26  CESSATION  OF  EXFERIMEXT. 

need  to  be  pressed  in  a  little  one  way,  and  pulled  out 
a  little  the  other  way,  and  then  they  will  be  all  right. 
And  they  say,  "All  you  want  is  development."  Is  it? 
Development!  You  might  as  well  go  to  a  man  bent 
double  with  the  cramps  of  Asiatic  cholera,  and  tell  him 
that  all  he  wants  is  development.  It  is  a  lie.  He  needs 
to  have  his  disease  killed,  so  that  he  may  get  well.  Un- 
til our  heart  is  changed  by  the  grace  of  God,  it  is  scab- 
bed and  ulcerous  with  a  great  leprosy;  and  it  is  not 
development  we  want,  but  it  is  the  cure  of  an  eating, 
loathsome,  blasting,  damning  leprosy.  Our  whole  na- 
ture throughout,  and  throughout,  and  throughout  wrong, 
needs  to  be  made  over  and  over,  and  over  again.  I 
wish  that  every  word  of  that  passage  could  come  down 
with  five  tons'  weight  of  emphasis — "Except  a  man  be 
born  again,  he  can  not  see  the  kingdom  of  God ;"  though 
he  had  given  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  religious 
institutions,  though  he  never  used  a  bad  word  in  his  life, 
though  he  paid  all  his  debts,  though  he  lived  on  the  tip- 
top round  of  respectability — "Except  a  man  be  born 
again,  he  can  not  see  the  kingdom  of  God."  But  so  lit- 
tle do  we  hear  about  this  doctrine  of  regeneration  in  this 
day,  that  it  is  almost  considered  indelicate  for  a  man  to 
read  in  a  public  assemblage  the  words  of  Christ  to  Nico- 
demus  about  the  new  birth.  And  as  to  there  being  any 
hell,  if  we  make  any  allusion  to  that,  it  must  be  with 
exquisite  circumlocution,  as  "the  place  of  high  tempera- 
ture," or  "the  world  insalubrious,"  or,  as  a  minister  re- 
cently called  it,  "  the  great  elsewhere !"  I  say  to  the 
young  men  who  are  studying  for  the  ministry — and 
there  are  thirty  connected  with  this  congregation — if 
you  have  any  idea  that  it  is  necessary  to  preach  an 


CESSATION  OF  EXPERIMENT.  427 

emasculated  Gospel  in  order  to  get  people  to  come  and 
hear  it,  you  make  a  vast  mistake.  An  eminent  minister 
of  New  York  said  to  me  some  time  ago,  "I  have  a  very 
large  audience,  but  they  are  all  Christians.  I  can  not 
get  the  worldly  people  to  come  in  and  listen  to  me.  I 
hear  that  a  good  many  worldly  people  come  to  hear  you. 
You  must  preach  some  very  strange  thing.  What  did 
you  preach  about  yesterday?"  "  Well,"  I  replied,  "I 
preached  yesterday  morning  on  'Seek  ye  the  Lord 
while  he  may  be  found ;'  and  in  the  evening  I  preached 
about  'Strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate.'"  Said  he, 
"  Is  that  all  ?"  "  Yes,"  I  replied,  "  that  is  all."  Oh,  my 
friends,  there  is  a  judgmeyit-seai  in  every  man^s  heart,  which 
tells  him  that  the  Bible  is  true;  and  if  it  be  true,  the 
wicked  and  the  righteous  can  not  go  to  the  same  place. 
So  I  say,  Young  men  who  are  entering  the  ministry,  if 
you  really  want  a  fresh  theme,  if  you  really  want  a  nov- 
el theme  to  preach  about,  preach  the  old  Gospel.  Do 
not  preach  about  "development" — that  is  hackneyed. 
Do  not  preach  about  the  Darwinian  theory  of  the  origin 
of  our  race — that  is  worn  out.  But  if  you  want  some- 
thing new,  really  new — so  new  that  tens  of  thousands 
of  people  in  this  day  do  not  know  any  thing  about  it — 
then  give  them  "Eepentance"  in  the  morning,  and 
"Faith"  at  night;  and  in  order  to  variety,  next  Sabbath 
give  them  "Faith"  in  the  morning,  and  "Eepentance" 
at  night. 

I  believe  that  within  the  next  twenty  years  there  will 
be  an  earthquake  amidst  the  American  and  English  pul- 
pits, and  that  those  which  have  adhered  to  the  old  Gos- 
pel will  stand,  and  that  those  which  have  preached  any 
thing  else  will  go  dowru     Paul  cries  out,  with  great  em- 


428  CESSATION  OF  EXPERIMENT, 

pbasis,  "  If  any  one,  though  he  be  an  angel  from  heaven, 
preach  any  other  Gospel,  let  him  be  accursed." 

Where  is  Theodore  Parker's  pulpit  to-day?  He  was 
the  most  fascinating  man  I  ever  heard — a  mighty  man ; 
but  he  denied  the  divinity  of  Christ,  and  denied  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Scriptures.  Where  is  his  pulpit  to-day  ? 
Boston  tried  to  patch  it  up  and  prop  it  up ;  but  when 
Theodore  Parker  died,  his  pulpit  died  with  him.  Where 
is  the  pulpit  of  Edward  Irving,  the  most  brilliant  man 
that  ever  stood  in  the  pulpit  of  England  ?  He  forsook 
the  simplicity  of  his  father's  faith,  and  when  Edward 
Irving  died,  his  pulpit  died  with  him.  Bat  while  those 
men  were  preaching,  each  in  his  day,  the  one  in  Boston 
and  the  other  in  London,  there  were  self-sacrificing  men 
in  our  Western  wilderness  preaching  Jesus  and  the  res- 
urrection. They  died  of  the  malaria  from  the  cancr 
brakes ;  but  what  became  of  their  pulpit  ?  It  multiplied 
into  five  thousand  other  pulpits,  and  the  song  for  which 
Bishop  Asbury,  and  George  Reynolds,  and  Jacob  Kru- 
ber  gave  the  pitch  is  still  humming  amidst  the  beech- 
woods  beyond  the  bluffs  of  the  Mississippi. 

Now  this  church  has  been  gathered  and  built  as  an 
exponent  of  a  literal  Gospel.  So  it  shall  stand.  That 
the  Lord  has  approved  our  plan  in  the  past,  i  have 
only  to  state  that  eight  hundred  and  ninety -two  souls 
have  connected  themselves  with  this  church  through 
these  five  years;  while  by  letters  from  all  parts  of  this 
land,  and  from  England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  Australia, 
and  the  islands  of  the  sea,  we  have  an  intimation  that 
through  your  prayers,  and  the  help  that  you  have  been 
able  to  give  your  pastor,  thousands  of  souls  have  been 
brought  into  the  kingdom  of  Christ.     The  old  Gospel 


CESSATION  OF  EXFEIUMENT.  429 

is  the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God  unto  sal- 
vation. 

But  now  five  years  are  gone.  God  has  closed  the 
fifth  volume,  never  to  be  opened  until  the  fiery  fingers 
of  the  judgment  shall  open  it,  amidst  a  flying  heaven 
and  a  burning  earth.  During  those  five  years,  a  good 
many  have  gone  out  from  us  into  the  eternal  world. 
Some  of  them,  I  fear,  went  unprepared.  It  is  absurd 
for  a  man  to  preach  a  sermon  in  which  he  implies  that 
all  the  dead  are  happy.  Some  of  those  who'  went  out 
from  us  during  the  past  five  years  into  the  eternal  world 
gave  no  evidence  of  repentance.  There  was  in  their  last 
struggle  a  look  of  terror  about  the  face  that  I  did  not 
like.  They  mentioned,  in  their  last  moments,  the  name 
of  father,  or  mother,  or  wife,  or  child,  but  they  did  not 
mention  the  name  of  Jesus — 

"Jesus,  the  name  high  over  all 
In  hell,  and  earth,  and  sky." 

They  did  not  speak  of  him.  I  could  not  sleep  nights, 
asking  myself  the  question,  "Was  it  my  fault?  Did  I 
give  them  fair  warning?"  "God  have  mercy  upon  their 
soul,"  would  be  an  appropriate  prayer  this  morning — if 
it  were  not  too  late  I 

But  oh,  how  many  of  our  friends,  during  these  five 
years,  have  gone  away  in  Christian  peacefulness!  The 
evening  came  on  them  with  the  soft  step  of  the  dew. 
There  was  sobbing  in  the  room,  and  there  were  wailings 
that  made  the  heart  ache,  and  cries  of  "  What  will  we 
do  without  father?"  "How  lonely  the  world  will  be 
without  mother!"  " Speak,  my  darling,  once  more !  Do 
you  know  me?     Say,  my  child,  do  you  know  me?" 


4B0  CESSATION  OF  EXPERIMENT. 

Ah  I  no  wonder  they  made  no  response.  How  could 
they  take  your  hand  when  Christ  had  it  in  both  of  his? 
How  could  they  hear  your  voice  when  the  heavenly 
escort,  come  to  fetch  them  home,  were  in  full  chant? 
How  could  they  see  you  in  the  turned-down  light  of  the 
sick-room,  when  the  morning  of  heaven  was  surging  in 
upon  their  soul  at  full  tide?  See!  see!  there  are  an- 
gels in  the  room.  Oh,  those  dying  looks,  those  enchant- 
ed faces,  those  closing  expostulations!  If  I  could,  this 
morning,  bring  those  five  years  of  Christian  death-bed 
triumphs  before  you,  you  would  spring  to  your  feet 
shouting  the  glory;  and  those  radiant  ones  who  have 
gone  up  from  your  homes  would  seem  moving  up  and 
down  again  through  these  yqtj  aisles,  and  you  would 
see  their  brows  garlanded  with  joy,  and  their  necks  jew- 
eled  with  light ;  and  as  they  looked  upon  you,  their 
countenances  sympathetic  for  your  loneliness,  you  would 
want  to  die  too,  so  as  to  be  with  them.  Do  not  Q,vy\ 
Do  not  cry !  Parents,  you  will  get  back  your  child. 
Sorrowful  orphans,  you  will  see  father  again — you  will 
see  mother  again.  God  will  wipe  away  all  tears  from 
your  eyes. 

During  these  five  years,  thirty -two  of  our  members 
have  gone  out  of  life,  and  they  all  went  away  in  the  sun- 
rise. Blessed  be  God !  I  knew  them  here,  and  I  will 
know  them  better  there. 

And  now,  as  a  church,  we  put  out  into  a  future  un- 
known, so  far  as  particulars  are  concerned ;  but  we  know 
one  thing  about  it :  "  Thou  shalt  see  greater  things  than 
these."  We  have  only  just  built  the  fort  out  of  which 
we  are  going  to  fire  upon  the  Lord's  enemies.  We  have 
only  just  planted  the  stake  from  which  we  are  going  to 


CESSATION  OF  EXPERIMENT.  431 

swing  out  in  the  offing  the  Gospel  net.  We  really  be- 
lieve that,  where  we  have  had  hundreds  brought  to  God, 
we  will  have  thousands.  We  mean  to  pray  the  church 
through.  To  God  be  the  glory  for  the  past!  In  God  is 
our  hope  for  the  future.  You  and  I  may  die — that  will 
not  have  any  thing  to  do  with  the  cause.  The  cause  will 
go  on.  The  sorrowful  will  be  comforted.  The  tempted 
will  be  delivered.  The  dead  will  be  raised.  There  are 
going  to  be  larger  harvest- homes,  and  stronger  doxol- 
ogies,  and  more  jubilant  hallelujahs. 

Oh,  men  and  women !  impenitent,  committed  to  my 
charge,  how  can  I  give  you  up?  If  there  be  any  power 
in  prayer,  in  tears,  in  heart-breaking  solicitations,  you 
must  come  in.  Oh,  fire-crowned  Sinai,  unliraber  now  thy 
batteries!  Oh,  quaking  Calvary,  now  plead  thy  love! 
Oh,  Day  of  Judgment,  now  unsheathe  thy  glory  !  Oh, 
Heaven,  display  thy  thrones!  Oh,  pit,  flash  forth  thy 
terrors!  And  amidst  the  rising,  and  the  falling,  and  the 
quaking,  and  the  wailing,  and  the  shouting,  and  the  pray- 
ing, as  one  billow  of  an  aroused  sea  has  been  known  to 
pitch  a  steamer  with  a  thousand  passengers  high  and  dry 
upon  the  beach,  so  now  this  moment,  with  one  great 
surge  of  penitence  and  praN^er,  let  all  this  audience  be 
landed  on  the  shore  of  eternal  safety. 

My  heart  overflows  with  emotion  when  I  think  that  I 
have  another  pastoral  year  less  of  work  to  do.  I  am  not 
tired.  God  has  been  very  good  to  me  all  these  years. 
Notwithstanding  the  work  I  have  been  called  to  do  here 
in  this  church,  and  in  the  Lay  College,  and  in  the  edito- 
rial chair — a  combined  work  that  many  supposed  and 
prophesied  would  crush  me — I  have  never  had  a  day  of 
real  sickness  in  my  life,  and  a  headache  is  to  me  unknown, 


432  CESSATION  OF  EXPERIMENT, 

save  as  some  of  my  good  friends,  with  their  hands  on 
their  hot  temples,  have  described  it.  God  has  been  very 
good  to  me.  I  ascribe  this  health  and  prosperity  first  to 
God,  and  then  to  the  two  facts  that  I  have  a  very  good 
home,  and  a  congregation  who  give  me  no  annoyance. 
They  are  in  sympathy  with  me  and  my  work.  If  any 
of  them  do  not  like  me,  I  have  been  too  stupid  to  find  it 
out.  I  thank  you  for  all  your  forbearances  toward  me. 
I  thank  you  for  all  the  generosity  with  which  you  have 
met  my  worldly  necessities.  Above  all,  I  thank  you  for 
the  prayers  that  in  public  and  private  you  have  offered  for 
me  and  mine.  I  hope  to  live  and  die  with  you.  It  is 
my  highest  ambition  to  be  your  servant  for  Jesus  sake. 
And  when  it  is  time  for  me  to  rest,  then  I  want  to  be 
carried  out  through  these  very  streets  by  the  men  who 
sit  before  me  to-day.  Their  arms  are  good  and  strong, 
and  they  will  know  how  to  let  me  gently  down  into  the 
last  sleep.  Many  of  them  are  my  children  in  the  Gospel. 
They  were  good  to  me  while  I  lived.  I  would  not  be 
afraid  to  trust  myself  in  their  arms  when  I  am  dead. 
And  then,  one  by  one,  you  will  come  out  to  the  same 
silent  neighborhood;  and  when  the  morning  of  the  res- 
urrection dawns,  in  its  holy  light  we  will  wake  up  togeth- 
er, and  as  I  cry,  "Are  you  all  here  ?"  you  will  know  my 
voice,  for  you  have  heard  it  so  often,  and  you  will  an- 
swer, "All  here!" 

"I  believe  in  the  communion  of  saints  and  the  life 
everlasting.     Amen."v>;j 

THE  END. 

IC5 


B458  TB  308 

LBC  ^^^^^^ 

11-16-00  32180      MS 


Date  Due 

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